Red King of Hearts
by nightdancer342
Summary: Lisbon has a new man in her life and Jane's obsession with Red John may be unhinging him. Let the head and heart games begin as events begin to spin out of control. Jealousy, betrayal and danger! Canon. Drama/Mystery. Full Synopsis inside.
1. Chapter 1

RED KING OF HEARTS

Synopsis:

Patrick Jane is holding onto the last strands of his sanity and becoming absorbed with the Red John case. When Lisbon gets a new distraction in her life, Jane begins to realize that if he lost her for good, it might just be the end of him. Worried for the safety of those around him, Patrick Jane leaves the CBI in reckless hopes that it will force the killer who obsesses over him to confront him. But when Jane goes missing, his only hope is that Teresa Lisbon and his other team members find him.

Rated T - for potential disturbing content, mild language and violence.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Mentalist or it's characters. Cue a reverse Red John smiley: :-(

* * *

Patrick awoke suddenly, looking around at the dusty surroundings of the attic of the CBI. Books and files lay open and scattered on the grimy floor. A notebook was laying open that had many annotations and his own thoughts on the case of Red John- something he was determined to finish, before it finished him.

Golden light was shimmering through the windows, and Patrick found himself shielding his eyes from the glare as he sat up. Something was wrong. It was entirely too quiet for this time of day. A feeling of foreboding crept upon him as he stood, and unwillingly went toward the door. He pulled it open and went through it. The silence was incredibly eerie. Where was the usual chatter and the sound of clicking fingers on keyboards and telephones ringing? Patrick ventured down the stairs slowly, and found the offices completely abandoned.

Panic surged through him. Where was everyone? This wasn't right.

Patrick looked down the still corridor and saw a single blue teacup that he frequently used sitting upon the floor… He watched in in amazement at it's sudden appearance- so strange it was to be set there, as if challenging him. Hesitating for only a second more, Patrick went toward it and picked it up, turning it over in his hands looking at it curiously. Something else caught his attention and Jane looked up.

The sight took his breath away, and he staggered back against the wall, hitting the cold stone behind him. Suspended in all it's glory, Red John's smiley face was drawn upon the wall in blood, streaming down like tears from it's happy smile- it was the blood of the CBI agents- the cup fell from his hands as if in slow motion. The noise was amplified as it shattered to pieces.

With a gasp, Patrick awakened, for real this time. He was covered in cold sweat and a piece of paper he had been composing his thoughts on was stuck to the side of his face which had sunken in exhaustion upon the small table up in the attic room where he had been working all night. Jane pulled it off with a sigh, feeling jittery and anxious even though he knew it was just a dream. Just a dream.

Patrick rubbed his face vigorously. He knew what he was doing was bad. Illogical even. The obsessing, the late night scribbling, his heightened levels of paranoia that prevented him from wanting to go home, and the lack of care for himself. But it had become a mad desire, a sick preoccupation that had continued this lunacy.

Jane held his breath for a moment…Listening… Ah, there it was… the sweet sounds of the office workers below…phone calls, muted voices and copying machines… It had just been a dream. Sighing with relief, Jane rose from the seat, gathering the papers and quickly replacing them in their folders. He placed them all on the table, and looked down at his open notebook. Jane had written all the names of Red John's previous victims down, in order. He had been trying to find some sort of code or anagram that could have been created from these women's names. It had ended up being a wasteful trial to go through every sort of combination imaginable. Sure, he had come up with some pretty interesting messages, but did they mean anything? Probably not.

Jane grabbed the piece of paper that he had written all over, taking up every bit of the page with this insanity, and ripped it from the notepad, crumpling it into pieces. He threw it on the ground, tears entering his eyes from his maddening situation. Jane knew what he was doing. He was driving himself crazy, that or Red John was… perhaps this is what he wanted. With a sudden cry of frustration, Jane hit the wall with his fists, pounding against it furiously.

_Why? _Was what he had done before so bad to deserve all of this? Jane never wanted to hurt all those people, he had been forced to, hadn't he? How else was he, ex-psychic-aging-boy-wonder to survive in the corporate world? Leaving the carnival hadn't been easy, and after a long period of doors slamming in his face, and rejection letters, Jane had found a job in Las Vegas, working in one of the old theaters on the strip. But there was no real money there, and trying to support his newly wed wife who was going to have his child… What else could he do?

Jane had gone through the guilt, humiliation and the countless nights of self loathing where he analyzed his own actions of being the ones he had always flawed his father for. But Jane always found excuses. He was helping people wasn't he? He was telling the fools what they needed to hear to move on with their lives- giving them closure and the chance to start fresh… He was just looking out for his family… He was doing it for them; For Angela and for Charlotte. Then, something happened in this strange lapse of blind pride and egomaniacal mindset: It was all a great game to him and he was gaining steam and recognition for his talents that so many pushed away in years before. It had become a gamble to predict oh-so-accurately, and he was a winner! Everyone knew who he was- he was famous! The police wanted him to help out on their cases, he was getting top dollar to listen to rich idiot's menial problems, and he was helping so many people, wasn't he?

With an exhausted sigh, Jane rested his forehead against the cool window, it was still early morning and his breath was fogging up the cracked glass pane. _No. _He had not done any of those things. There was one time when Jane really wanted to help people and it may have started out that way. Somehow he had let himself become corrupted by greed and pride, by monetary value and superficial items like large houses and the finest furniture. Jane had not realized that the one thing that he really treasured beyond anything else was the ones that he had somehow managed to over-look in all of his riches. His family. Now, what was the house? It was no home with none of his loved ones. Patrick had cleared all of the rich décor and designer couches from his Malibu residence. So now he would never forget how truly empty it was.

"Jane?" Jane started, turning around to the voice which called out his name. Teresa Lisbon stood, gazing at him with a concerned expression on her face. "You alright?" She asked, her eyes analyzing him in a worried way.

Patrick shook his head, his hand resting on his lower back as he rocked on the balls of his feet. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said quietly, looking away, toward his paperwork that now lay piled up. Lisbon followed his gaze and then looked down at the floor which had scrap paper crinkled up into little balls that littered the floor. But she made no comment about it, in which Jane was grateful for.

"You coming?" Lisbon asked.

He was distracted for a moment as he thought of his work, then he realized she had spoken him.

"Huh?" Jane jerked his head toward her, questioningly, but he hurriedly read her body language which suggested that she wanted to leave with her foot turned toward the door. "Oh, yeah, yeah, sure." Jane replied quickly, trying to save himself from looking as if he hadn't been paying attention.

Lisbon frowned, he knew she had caught it… in fact, she had mentioned several times in the past month how his memory had been failing him. Patrick had denied it, making clever excuses and a worthy distraction whenever it was brought up. She beckoned him with a tilt of her head, her green eyes gazing at his from under her cropped bangs. "Come on then." She said softly as if calling to a child.

* * *

The day drifted along lazily as the van zoomed across state, heading to the residence of the widow of the victim of the new case they had been working on for the past few days so that they could question her. Her husband had been found dead two nights ago in a hotel room in a different part of town. They were to question the widow to see if she had knowledge to why he was located there. Jane quietly stared out the window at the passing scenery in the front passengers seat of Lisbon's van, his mind wandering vaguely.

The van slowed down as they began reaching the city traffic, and Jane glanced over at Lisbon who had a bemused smirk on her face, her eyes set on the cars in front of her. Patrick narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "What are you so pleased about?" Jane asked. "It can't be the traffic… can it?"

Lisbon glanced at him, her eyes widening a bit as if surprised that he had broken the silence and brought her out of her reverie. "Oh, nothing Jane, I was just thinking about something else." She said mysteriously, her eyes returning to the road in front of her as the van inched along. Jane watched as her fingers tightened over the wheel as she readjusted her hold on it.

Jane cocked his head, "Something else… which is…" Jane trailed off, waiting for her to elaborate.

"Never you mind."

Jane smirked squinting in the sunlight at her expression, "Why Lisbon, I think you're blushing."

"I'm not either." She said defensively. "It's just the light from the sun."

"Even if you had come up with a better excuse, I'd still think you were lying." Jane said teasingly.

Lisbon rolled her eyes in reply, showing her exasperation with him.

"Mm, I wonder…" Jane said. There was silence, as he resumed staring out the window…. Wait for it… Wait for it…

"Wonder what Jane?" Lisbon asked, taking his bait. She glanced over at him. "What?"

Patrick smiled slowly.

"Sheepdip." She murmured under her breath. "Oh, I get it. You're just playing some of your psycho mind-games on me aren't you?"

Jane's grin widened.

"Uh-huh, I thought so. You know what? You spent an awful lot of time studying that crap. I suppose you must have had a lot of idle time on your hands to play around with magic tricks while I was working my butt off actually studying and working." Lisbon jabbed.

"Oh, no reason to start getting on the attack to defuse and distract from your own sticky situation that makes you blush so." Jane replied carelessly.

"Shut up Jane." Lisbon said, but she still smiled despite herself.

"Pay-raise?"

"Nope."

"Promotion?"

"No."

"Hmmm…"

"Jane, just shut up."

Fifteen minutes later they were riding up to the residence of Mrs. Scott. She had a nice three-story home, all-brick, with white shutters. The engine died as Lisbon removed the key from the ignition. "It's funny isn't it?" Patrick commented as he grabbed his jacket that he had lazily strewn over the car seat from the heat. "The fact only rich people get murdered. I suppose because they are all a bunch of liars and cheaters- it comes with the territory, just like paparazzi and celebrity."

Lisbon rolled her eyes, leaning back into her car seat to look at him. "Rich people get murdered, because they have a lot of money, and someone _else_ wants it a lot." Lisbon corrected. She opened her door and slammed it close, walking toward the house.

Jane considered this as he pulled on his suit and nodded, then opened his door. Trotting up the sidewalk toward her. "_Or _they're liars and cheaters." He repeated.

"Just because you were, doesn't mean everyone else is." Lisbon said patronizingly.

"Oh, sure it does. It just means that they're _smart _liars and cheaters_." _

"Don't flatter yourself." Lisbon pushed the door bell and they both stood, waiting for the door to open with their hands behind their backs.

Jane glanced around at the lawn. The flower-beds were neat, and the earth had recently been toiled. Jane's guess was the wife, and unless the husband had been killed by a spade, Jane was quite certain that it hadn't been by her hand. Peaceful people were typically the ones who gardened… but also someone who was deeply troubled and needed something to tend to… The door opened, and Jane turned back around to see the widow. She was a nice-looking blond woman, dressed in relaxed clothing, and very minimal makeup, as if she had been crying earlier, but her eyes were not red. So it had not been recently.

"Mrs. Scott? CBI. I'm Teresa Lisbon and this is my consultant, Patrick Jane." As Lisbon showed her the badge, Jane watched the woman closely as she glanced at him curiously, recognition glittering in his eyes as she beckoned them inside.

Jane swept the room with his eyes as she led them through to the sitting room. It was a little cluttered. Blue walls with feminine assets obviously chosen by the wife. He was bending to look at the picture of the man and wife sitting together. Mrs. Scott and Mr. Scott both sat stiffly beside one another, with fixed smiles on their faces.

"Patrick Jane…" Mrs. Scott said. Jane stood up and turned to face her. "Weren't you on Karen Cross the other day?" The woman asked, staring at Jane with striking blue eyes.

He smiled, "Well, yes, actually I was."

"You were amazing." Mrs. Scott said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I mean, at first, I wondered if you were all there or not," She chuckled in embarrassment, "But that's just because I wasn't sure what you were doing. I'd never seen anything like that before in my life. It was incredible."

Jane shrugged modestly, "Thank you."

"Well, if there's one person I trust to solve the case, it's you, Mr. Jane."

Lisbon had an annoyed look on her face, which caused Jane to smirk at her with amusement.

"So, Mrs. Scott, do you mind telling us the last time you spoke to your husband?" Lisbon interrupted sharply.

"Oh, yes. Of course." Mrs. Scott replied, her eyebrows contracting into a momentarily pained expression.

"He said he was leaving on one of his business trips last weekend, and not to expect him until Monday. When Monday came and went, naturally I wondered what happened, but… Never in my life did I imagine…" Her eyes began to tear up and she sniffed, wiping them away. Jane watched her skeptically.

"Did he go on business trips often, was this a normal thing for him?" Lisbon asked.

"He went on them more frequently in the past year, but yes…"

Jane had heard enough to sum up his thoughts, so he wandered into the other room, touring the rest of the house. She was a bit messy, especially in certain areas in the house, which suggested to Patrick, great frustration and inner turmoil that she had displayed outwardly. She obviously stayed home a lot. It looked as if she had taken up various hobbies, and besides gardening (he had found her tools stacked in a bucket inside a closet), she appeared to have tried crocheting, but found it too tedious. Older photos of the married couple suggested that there had been closeness at one time, but there was a lot of love lost.

He was just about to reach the kitchen when Lisbon's voice rang out, "_Jane_!"

Patrick made his way through the house back toward the front door. Mrs. Scott looked at him with a small frown. "Come on, let's go." Lisbon said at his appearance.

Jane nodded, "Alright." Lisbon began her way out the door, toward the van, and Mrs. Scott stopped Patrick with a light touch on his elbow. "Mr. Jane?" Mrs. Scott said, her blue eyes looking at him searchingly. "Maybe… maybe you would like to come over for dinner sometime?" She said uncertainly, brushing her hair back from her face. Jane smiled which encouraged her to do the same. Mrs. Scott, grabbed a nearby notepad, and wrote down her number, giving him the slip of paper to keep.

Jane took it, and nodded not intending to seriously take her up on her offer, "Good-bye Mrs. Scott." Jane said. "Call me Ashley, please." She replied with a hopeful glimmer in her eyes.

A few moments later, Jane hurried out to the van which was already running in Lisbon's impatience. It was starting to sprinkle as he climbed into the front passengers seat and Lisbon looked at him. "What kept you?" She asked. "Did Mrs. Scott ask you for your autograph?"

Jane smiled softly at her tease. Lisbon might actually be getting better at reading people than he thought. It was obvious that Mrs. Scott was an opportunist and liked being associated with people of power or prestige. "She asked me to call her Ashley, and no, she didn't ask me for anything. She gave me something." Jane replied.

"What did she give you?" Lisbon asked.

"I'll tell you if you tell me." Jane said.

"Tell you what?" Lisbon looked taken aback.

"What was making you smile earlier." Jane replied with a grin.

Lisbon gave him an irritated look as she pulled out of the driveway and drove rather jerkily around the corner, as the windshield wipers violently swept away the rain droplets. Jane sat back, watching her in amusement as they headed on their way back to the CBI.

**A/N:**

…_To be continued?_

_I'd really appreciate your feedback!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A/N: Wow, thanks for all the reviews guys! It really does keep me motivated to continue writing- So I send out a special thanks to reviewers: Country2776, Xanderseye, Jisbonforever, Frogster, Jbon, klcarr892, rubyredsyn, Anna, Streak of the Sun, 13 Jo, lightrain and Mentalistlover! I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter!

Kudos to Frogster for picking up on my hints- I think you are headed towards a career in mentalism my friend ;-)

* * *

The rain was leaking through the roof and into Jane's hide-away in the attic, which prevented Patrick from staying up there for very long after he had returned back to the CBI HQ with Teresa Lisbon.

As it was always said: It never rained in California, it poured; and that was exactly what it had decided to do. With the extreme leakage into the attic, the old and damaged roof of the CBI might as well had not even been there. No longer able to stay in his unsuitable refuge upstairs, Jane had gathered all of his paperwork and hidden them away in a safe, dry place, his only alternative to migrate to the couch located in Lisbon's office.

Jane lay on his back, his eyes half closed as he vacantly watched Lisbon putting case files in order- a very dull and tedious job if he had ever saw one. Poor, under-appreciated Teresa. Jane thought to himself. She never did get enough credit for the things she had to do around here. Jane wasn't sure why he felt so amused at this thought as he watched her stacking papers and sorting through them, entering information into the database in her computer. Jane was idly shuffling a pack of playing cards with the expertise of a Vegas card dealer that he had gained over the years of doing card tricks. Lisbon glanced over at him every now and again, giving him exasperated looks.

Finally she'd had enough. "Would you stop doing that?" Lisbon asked sharply as he was in mid shuffle. Jane stopped, giving her a theatrical grimace, "Sorry." He said in a high voice.

She gave him one of her many irritable looks that said 'be serious!' as he gently lay down the cards on the table beside him with two fingers as if trying to prevent them from making any sound at all.

After this, Jane lay there quite still, staring straight up, his mind drifting onto the case they had at hand:

Mr. Scott had been found lying in blood in his hotel room by a maid, shot in the chest, apparently with a silencer, as no one had heard the gun shot in the hotel. Jane had gone to the crime scene and taken a look around.

Mr. Scott had not unpacked his things from his suit case- he obviously intended on leaving quickly. His cell phone had been broken to pieces by his attacker, and the SIM card taken so there was no evidence of who he had been contacting. A laptop bag was also left behind which suggested that whoever had killed him had taken the computer for some reason… Lisbon had proposed the possibility that perhaps the man had some important information on the computer that the murderer needed. Jane thought this seemed highly plausible, and yet, Jane felt that the murder seemed almost a desperate, hurried act, as if it hadn't exactly been planned- however, it was very cleverly done, which suggested that whoever had done it had been contemplating murder, just perhaps not Mr. Scott's…

Lisbon got up a half hour later, paying him no mind as she left her office. Jane let out a sigh, closing his eyes, trying to will sleep to come to him, but for whatever reason, it stubbornly refused to. He managed to drift off into a light sleep for about ten minutes (he might as well just have blinked), but was reawakened as Lisbon returned to her office.

Jane opened his eyes and sniffed the air, as it was especially flowery at her presence.

"Is that new perfume?" He asked her.

Lisbon turned around, startled, as if she had been caught doing something that she wasn't supposed to. "I thought you were asleep. Did I wake you up?" She asked, not even bothering to answer his question. Ah, that was Lisbon, always changing the subject when she didn't want to discuss something.

Jane smirked, looking her over from where he was slouched on the couch, a pillow under his head, his arms folded and his feet crossed at the ankles. She appeared, in her absence, to have gone somewhere to freshen herself up. Her hair looked much smoother and nicer than it had earlier, her eye make-up improved, and besides from the perfume, she had also, apparently applied some lipstick.

"You look nice." Jane commented, like her, he didn't answer her question either.

Lisbon looked at him, her mouth pouted and her expression quite serious. "Well, Jane, I wish I could say the same. Because frankly, you look like a mess. I know you never have been much of a sleeper, but when's the last time you changed that suit? Or combed your hair for that matter?"

"Oh, Last month. But tell me, where are you headed off to?" Jane asked, his curiosity peaking. Lisbon gave him a look that showed her extreme annoyance at his questions. "You have a date." Jane said, pointing at her as he watched her closely for her reaction.

Her eyes diverted to the side for a brief moment as she replied, "No." Lisbon said in a shrill voice as she started busying herself with straightening the case files on her desk that didn't need tending to.

"Yes you do. But who is the lucky guy?"

Before she could answer, a brunette man came in looking drenched from the rain, two cups of coffee in his hands. "Hi Honey-cakes." The man said, holding out one of the coffees for her. Jane smirked at Mister tall, dark and handsome dressed in a navy blue shirt rolled up to his elbows. Jane couldn't help but notice that he had picked a shirt tight enough to show off his muscles- the rain had only made the material stick to his form- but he didn't seem to mind this. His conceitedness was positively blinding. Jane shook his head as he looked at him doubtfully; who called anyone 'honey-cakes' that didn't fancy themselves as a player? Jane hoped that Lisbon could see through his translucent charms.

Lisbon whirled around startled, "Oh! Brad! Hi! I didn't know you were going to come in!" She said with a large, flustered smile on her face. Her eyes darted to the coffee in his hand, to his wet hair. "Is this for me? You shouldn't have- oh, you're soaking wet!" Lisbon said breathlessly, taking her coffee as 'Brad' smiled telling her that he would dry soon enough.

Jane smirked from the couch. It was a rather pitiful and painfully awkward scene. Even more painfully awkward was the fact that Brad hadn't seemed to have noticed Jane lying there on the couch as he went in for a kiss on her cheek. "Ehhm!" Jane protested, putting a hand over his eyes. Brad jumped violently, spilling his full cup of coffee over his front. Lisbon gasped and Brad stood there for a moment, dripping. "Are you alright?" Lisbon exclaimed, horrified. But luckily for him, it seemed that the coffee hadn't been burning hot.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Brad glanced over at him with a frown, and Patrick gave him a small wave. "I'll-I'll just go clean up-" Brad said.

"The bathroom is down the hall on the left." Lisbon said weakly. As Brad departed, Lisbon turned, rounding on Jane like a little attack dog. "What the hell did you do that for?" She demanded angrily.

Jane shrugged, giving her an innocent look. "What'd I do? He's the one that spilled the coffee."

Lisbon gave him a disapproving look. "Yeah, uh-huh. Thanks a lot Jane."

"What'd I do?" Jane asked again, in a simpering voice.

Lisbon's green eyes flashed, "Nothing, Jane. The whole world doesn't revolve around you, you know?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like it means." Lisbon replied sharply. She ran a hand over her smooth hair and gave Jane a pleading look. "Just- _please, _just… be nice to Brad will you?"

Jane scrunched up his face, "_Why_?"

"Because…" Lisbon sighed, clearly exasperated with him. "He's a really…nice, sweet, _smart _guy. I just want to get to know him, Jane. Please don't ruin this for me?"

Jane gave her a look, "Nice? Sweet? Smart? Oh, I _doubt _it. He's obviously just a user- he's a complete sham- I mean, look at him!" Jane burst out. "Who calls someone 'honey-cakes'? I mean, come on! _Really_, Lisbon? No offense, but I think you have a poor choice of men."

"Oh yeah? Well, I think you have a poor sense of judgment." Lisbon retorted. She opened the door and stalked off. Oh yes, she was angry with him.

There was silence in the office now, resonating from the negative energy that Lisbon had left and Jane, too wired to sleep now, sat up, sweeping a hand through his curly mop of hair. He put his aching head in his hands, pressing on his eyelids, groaning at his state of exhaustion. Jane sat there for several minutes, colorful dots dancing in front of his eyes as he gently massaged his forehead.

The door opened, which caused him to look up, bleary eyed at Brad who had once again entered, looking like a lost lamb, his shirt stained brown in the front. "Oh, uh, I was looking for Teresa." Brad said politely. "Have you seen her?"

"Yes." Jane replied, smirking at him. "I've seen her before, being that I've, you know, worked with her for quite a few years." He said offhandedly.

Brad put his hand on his hip, looking back at Jane, his icy-blue eyes growing colder as his brows became furrowed. "Is there a problem?" Brad asked assertively.

"Not with me, no." Jane replied airily, he picked up the pack of cards, beginning to impressively shuffle them again with different fancy shuffles as if Brad lacked importance to even gain his attention.

"Well, uh, Mister…"

"-Jane." The consultant flipped his cards, glancing up at him for a mere second to give his name.

"Mister _Jane_… You seem to have some sort of issue with me, and I don't know why that could be."

"Nope." Patrick replied shortly.

Brad stood there staring at him for a few moments, placing both hands on his hips, nodding as he sniffed. "You uh- play well?" He asked, pointing at the cards Jane was doing the Faro shuffle with.

"Very well." Jane said with a broad smile.

"Hm. Usually a sign of a wasted life." Brad said, cutting him down as effectively as Jane cut his cards.

Jane's smile vanished from his face and he put the cards down on the table, not taking kindly to 'Brad's' insinuations. "Do you mind if I say something?" Jane said suddenly.

"Yeah, I do actually." Brad replied boldly.

"Well, I'm going to say it anyway." Jane said quickly.

"You can if you want, it doesn't mean I'll listen."

Jane studied him coldly, his hostility growing at Brad's indifference. Patrick stood up, to be on his level.

"You know, you might find it rewarding to listen to a good, _honest_ viewpoint for once, since it's obvious, to me that you've never experienced any reliable criticism in your life. You're extremely deluded… if you don't mind me saying it." Jane gestured at him with a flippant hand as he moved closer to Brad, his voice dropping to a more serious, gruff tone as he continued, "The way I see it, is that you always had a _deep _desire to be someone in a leadership position, but you've always lacked the natural charisma to actually gain supporters for your causes. Instead you've been resorting to your superficial charms that unbeknownst to you, are transparent as glass to others. Your narcissism prevents you from seeing your own lack of _talent_, and your inability to inspire or gain any _real_ credibility in your proud, _dulcet _tones that seem to think will garner you the attention you so desire."

Brad's chin moved upward, as he straightened himself to become taller than Jane. This did not intimidate the mentalist though. "But every night when you lie down in the security of your own bed, the walls of self-delusion you build up around you come down and at last…_those_ are the moments when you realize the truth… that you're a worthless-"

"Jane!" Lisbon stood in the doorway looking abashed at the scene unfolding in front of her. She moved into the office quickly. Jane gave her an 'oops' look. "Oh, Brad… I'm _so_ sorry about him." Lisbon said touching his arm lightly, looking mortified.

"Oh, it's alright Cupcake. It's not your fault." Brad replied, with a self-satisfied smirk as he put his arm around her. "He's just projecting himself onto me, that's all. Are you ready to go?" Brad asked her casually, giving Jane a triumphant look at his seeming appearance of being the cool, rational one in the room who had the upper-hand.

Lisbon shot a glare at Jane. "Yeah, sure." She said in a small voice. Brad with his arm wrapped around her, led her out the door, leaving the blond haired consultant standing there, feeling more than a little jaded. He sunk back down on the couch, watching as they made their jolly way down the hall and out of sight. After a moment of sitting there, Jane sniffed and got up, feeling extremely restless, as he decided to go make himself some tea in the kitchen.

Jane glanced out the window as he passed by. It was still raining in sheets. Steam was rising from the concrete from the earlier heat. It rather seemed to represent his own seething anger at being one-upped by some random suitor of Lisbon's. He wondered where she had met him, and what exactly she saw in the guy. Jane thought Brad seemed like an egotistical bastard. Definitely not right for Lisbon- she deserved much better than that jerk. Of course, Lisbon didn't see the side to this 'Brad' that he had. It seemed that Brad played his cards well- Jane was quite certain of that, and he'd be an opponent worth beating.

**A/N:**

_To be continued? Your reviews determine it! _


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

A/N: A super thanks again to reviewers who make this story possible! Literally, I get so distracted and unmotivated if I don't have someone reminding me to update. Ha! Also, just so you know, this is the first murder mystery plot I've really ever attempted to write, so I'm kind of psyched about it! I'm usually very character driven so this is a bit different for me, thinking up of a complicated mystery to intertwine in it, and frankly it's pretty fun (and challenging) trying to come up with a good one!

In reply to all the comments about Brad, tee-hee! I do enjoy reading your feedback, it's very fun to read some Brad bashing! He is sort of an egotistical type- probably suffering from a few of the narcissistic characteristics Patrick Jane displays from time-to-time (thus, Jane _was_ projecting just a little bit, as Brad said) Brad might just have a bit of the upper-hand, as he is pretty insensitive and criticism doesn't effect him in the least- especially from a fellow guy that he considers a rival. Where as, Jane is extremely damaged, sensitive and guilt-ridden- and unfortunately for Jane, Brad is the type to put him on the spot for all those things he's done and hold him accountable, where as others aren't quite as cruel to do that to him…

So this goes out to: Jisbon4ever, intodarkness, Country2776, Waterbaby134, 24Mentalistlover, 13 Jo, rubyredsyn, Frogster and Mentalistlover for adding their very kind comments about chapter two!

* * *

Lisbon didn't speak to Jane when she returned, nor did she even acknowledge him when he asked her how the lunch date had gone with Brad. She had decided to turn on the frost, he supposed, and unless she warmed up again, she probably wouldn't speak to him for the rest of the night. The rain persisted, cutting out only now and again for the sun to shine through briefly before starting up once more. Thunder rumbled, and rattled the creaky windows of the building every so often.

Jane had retreated to the couch for company with his other, more cheerful comrades, Cho, Rigsby and Van Pelt. Rigsby was tossing a ball up in the air to catch, as he swiveled around in his chair lazily. Cho glanced at him every now and again, and Jane could tell he was wondering why Rigsby wasn't actually working. Van Pelt, however, was not watching Rigsby, but instead had a pleasant expression on her face as she worked on the computer, flinching slightly whenever a particularly loud thunder clap sounded.

Jane sat, cross legged on the couch, writing with a blue ink pen the number 9 in one of the boxes in Sudoku.

Earlier, Rigsby had looked over at him, commenting that he never understood Sudoku, and looked bewildered when Jane tried to explain that the numbers 1-9 had to go into all of the boxes and also up and down the entire puzzle.

"But how do you know what number to put in there? The boxes are practically all empty!" Rigsby whined.

"You have to eliminate all the possibilities." Cho inputted, not even looking up.

Rigsby still looked utterly perplexed about the whole thing.

After this occurred, the three agents went back to work (Cho managed to talk Rigsby into alphabetizing files, which he reluctantly started on) but it was obvious to Jane that Rigsby was not entirely focused on the files, as he saw him shooting fervent glances at the vibrating phone of Van Pelts' that was sending her texts every five minutes. Van Pelt would pick up her phone lying on her desk and she'd smile or chuckle, quickly punching in a message back to him, seemingly oblivious to the put-out face of her ex that sat at the desk behind hers. Jane watched this unspoken drama out of the corner of his eye as this went on for a while until finally her boyfriend probably had to go back to work, and the phone lay still and silent, and there was only the sound of office noises. Feeling slightly tired and bored, Jane made himself comfortable, as he wrote down the last few numbers in the spaces remaining.

At last, Cho spoke, breaking up the silence. "Huh. That's weird." Cho commented, staring at his computer screen.

Jane looked up from the advanced Sudoku puzzle he just finished to completion, happy for some sort of stimulating conversation that would break up the monotony. "What's weird?" Patrick asked, with interest. It seemed he wasn't the only one who had sensed the drop of energy of the room, because Rigsby had stopped rifling through files, alternatively gaping at Cho, and even Grace Van Pelt had stopped clicking the keys on her laptop.

"We just got a match back from the gun used to shoot Jonathan Scott in his hotel." Cho replied, staring at the computer screen.

"What's so weird about that?" Rigsby interjected.

"What's weird is that our victim, Mr. Scott had purchased a gun with that same make and model only a month before."

"But no gun was found at the scene…" Rigsby said slowly.

"So, he was killed with his own gun?" Van Pelt asked, moving a strand of red hair from her eyes.

"It looks that way." Cho replied.

"Well, What's that mean? Does it really make a difference who the weapon belonged to?" Rigsby said.

Unlike Rigsby, however, Jane found this an extremely valuable piece of news, as he straightened up more attentively, putting the puzzle book aside. "It means that whoever killed him, knew he had the weapon in his possession at that time."

"The wife!" Rigsby exclaimed excitedly. "She probably knew, right?"

Grace rolled her eyes. "She already had an alibi remember?"

"Oh…yeah…"

Jane was already up and half across the room with an idea forming in his mind. "Where are you going?" Cho asked Jane sharply.

Jane stopped, peering around the corner to answer, "Oh, I'm just going to go make a phone call." He said mysteriously.

Patrick jogged out of earshot of the three team members, his brain already calculating a plan… After-all, even though Mrs. Scott did have an alibi the night of the murder, Rigsby had a point… Jane had already witnessed that she was a lonely, restless sort which was evident with her lack of patience for knitting things or staying with one hobby for too long, and those were definitely the types to secretly poke into her husband's business- maybe just out of pure boredom. She might have some information that she didn't even realize was valuable. Jane searched his pocket, pulling out the flowery note that Mrs. Scott had given him. He flipped open his phone and entered the numbers in, putting it to his ear as he leaned up against the wall, waiting for her to answer.

"_Hello?" _Mrs. Scott's voice asked.

"Hi Ashley, this is Patrick Jane." He said in a purring voice.

Jane could almost hear the delight in her voice as she exclaimed, _"Oh! Mr. Jane, I wasn't expecting you to call so soon." _She said. _"But I hoped you would…" _She added quickly.

"Well, I would like to ask you a few questions about your husband and his activities over the past month- don't worry, you're not a suspect or anything, but I do have a few follow-up questions." Jane said smoothly. "I was hoping maybe I could come over and we could just…talk for a little while." He continued.

"_Oh, sure, sure… I was just about to make dinner- if you like, you could join me- it wouldn't be any trouble, Mr. Jane… It would really be an honor!" _Ashley burst out, almost desperately, Jane thought. How sad.

"Well, thank you, I would enjoy that very much." Jane replied politely. "What time would be most convenient?" He asked.

"_Oh, uh… I can get it ready by seven-thirty if that would be good with you."_

"Seven-thirty sounds just fine. I'll see you then, Ashley." Jane said, customizing his good-bye.

"_Alright, Mr. Jane." _She gushed.

"Patrick- please." He corrected.

"_Alright, Patrick." _Ashley laughed girlishly. _"Good-bye! See you soon!"_

"Ok, bye-bye." Jane smiled, closing his cell phone feeling somewhat victorious on the simplicity of that arrangement.

"Who were you talking to?" Lisbon demanded from behind him, causing him to start slightly at her unexpected appearance. Jane whirled around, feeling like someone caught red-handed.

"Oh- uh, no one." Jane said sheepishly. He didn't have to be psychic to realize that she was still angry with him.

Teresa Lisbon sniffed sarcastically, her hands on her hips. "Oh really?" She shook her head, looking sour. "Why don't you just tell the truth for once? I know who you were talking to, I just want to know why." Lisbon replied.

"If you knew, why did you ask?" Jane asked, smiling devilishly, because he was wondering if it was her attempt to get him to divulge the information she wanted.

Lisbon stared at him for a moment, her green eyes narrowed. "I don't know, I guess I wanted to see if you'd tell me." She replied.

"Well, I guess you got your answer." Jane said carelessly, turning to leave- if he had a dinner date, he needed to get at least a little more presentable- not that he was trying to woo any widows, but it did look better if it appeared as if he was trying to make an effort for her, so she'd be more inclined to tell him whatever he wanted.

"So, I guess you're allowed to do whatever you like, and I'm not, huh? Is that how it goes?" Lisbon said to his retreating back. Jane turned around surprised. "What do you mean by that?" Jane asked innocently.

Lisbon scowled. "You know perfectly well what I mean Jane!" She said through clenched teeth, obviously trying to be quiet in her obvious fury. "I asked you not to meddle, and what did you do?"

"-Well, that's just-"

"-No, _NO _Jane. Don't you dare try to make up some kind of excuse, because I saw what you were doing!" Her nostrils flared angrily, and she clicked her tongue looking at his angelic expression that he had on his face. She stood there staring at him, and then she suddenly laughed , nodding as if she finally understood something. "You know, I think Brad's right." She said.

"Brad's right about what?" Jane asked defensively.

"He says you're jealous. That you just don't want me to be happy- that you want me to be under your thumb, your _control_. Well, guess what, Jane? It's not going to work!" Lisbon was getting a little loud and a few passer-bys glanced at them, but she didn't pay them any mind as she cornered Jane against the wall, punching her finger into his chest.

"I told you to stay out of it, and you did the exact opposite. You went against my wishes Jane, and that's really crappy, because you know what? I thought I could trust you to be a good friend, but apparently I can't."

Jane opened his mouth to argue, but her flashing green eyes silenced him as she interrupted. "Why can't you just _LISTEN_ for once, in your life?" She huffed, her chest rising and falling with anger. She waited for him to speak, but Jane stood there feeling just a little stunned at her outburst- never in his life could he remember her being so angry with him, and he couldn't understand how she could place the relationship that she had with Brad above theirs, and frankly it stung a little.

At his silence, Lisbon gave him a disgusted look and stormed away back to her office, shutting her door with unnecessary force.

Jane stared at her office door and the shutters hanging there which still fluttered from the impact, Jane's back still against the hard stone wall where Lisbon had pinned him, as his mind drifted back…

To a time eight years ago…

* * *

"_Listen to me!" _Angela pleaded, her impassioned voice echoed in the large Malibu home, her eyes were full of tears as she grabbed the front of his suit, turning him to face her as he had tried to turn away. "You're out of control Patrick! When's the last time you've actually had dinner with this family? That you even played with Charlotte? You're hardly home, you're always working Patrick- you're _obsessed_!"

Jane tried to jerk away from her grasp, feeling annoyed with her. He needed to get to sleep after-all, he had a television interview in the morning and he wanted to look refreshed for his appearance. Jane didn't have time to listen to the usual arguments his wife poised, because they were always the same, and they were simply ridiculous.

"Patrick, Talk to me!" Her voice rang out as she increased her grip on his suit, grabbing him by his tie.

"What do you want from me? I work to support this family!" He shouted back at her, grabbing her by the wrist to try to get her to release his necktie, she was uncomfortably pulling on. "I've given you everything that you could possibly want! I've given you a beautiful home to live in! How do you think the bills get paid for around here? How do you think you have food on the table?"

"_I - DON'T - WANT - THIS_!" Angela screamed back at him, emphasizing every word as she twisted out of his grasp and punched him in the chest with her fists.

Jane sardonically chuckled, moving away from her. What'd she want him to do? Stop working altogether, live off the land? "First you weren't happy at the carnival, then you weren't happy in Vegas, and now you're not happy here- what the hell do you want me to do, Angela? What is going to make you happy, because I'm starting to think that it's not even possible!"

Angela's eyes widened. "How DARE you speak to me like that, how _DARE _you!" She backed up shaking her head looking at him with disbelief, tears streaming down from her face. "You don't even care what I have to say… you are _not _the same man I married!" She burst out. wiping her face with her hand.

Jane only laughed at her.

Angela shook her head at him, "Charlotte doesn't deserve to be around this." Angela said tearfully.

Jane stopped laughing and looked at her disbelievingly. "What do you want me to do? Take her away from here, move her away from her school, her friends?" Jane tutted, idly gazing at his nails, the woman was obviously being melodramatic. "She's happy here, Ang, she doesn't want to leave- that's you! I don't want my daughter having to grow up like some poor, trailer trash like I had to- I'm doing this for HER. I want to give her the life that I never had, and you want to take her away from that? Who are you thinking of? Charlotte? Or _Yourself_?"

Angela's face was livid. "You son of a bitch, don't you say that I am not thinking of her-you don't love us, you aren't doing _anything _for us _Patrick_! You're the one who is thinking about yourself all the time!" She cried. "You don't spend any time with me _or _your daughter anymore- everything is about _you_ and your damned career! How DARE you even suggest that I am the one being selfish here? Charlotte doesn't _need _all of this, she just needs her FATHER!"

Jane shook his head, she was so far off mark it wasn't even funny. It seemed like nothing he did pleased her- She wasn't happy living in Nevada, with him working as a magician, struggling to pay the bills or even buy food- add a baby to the mix… Jane couldn't just have his daughter living in poverty- he wanted her to have a future- something that he never even had the chance at. He had no credentials for the "real world"… What did she expect? Him to fall into some corporate job? Angela wasn't even living in reality.

"I don't know what you want me to do." Jane repeated quietly.

"I have already told you! I WANT YOU TO _STOP_!" She bellowed, her volume growing. "JUST LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" She screamed at his retreating back.

Jane sighed irritably, beginning to climb the stairs.

"I'm taking Charlotte and we're leaving." Angela said heatedly. Jane stopped in his tracks, turning to glare at her, outraged. "You're not taking her anywhere." He replied.

"Wherever I go, Charlotte goes." She said, she turned away from him, her eyes filled with a fresh set of tears, sobbing. Jane didn't comfort her that night though, and ignored the light coming from his daughter's room, as he lay down to go to sleep- he'd make it up to them tomorrow, he thought.

Little did he know that he would not have that chance.

The sounds of the office copiers and phones ringing brought Jane back to the present and out of his reverie. Feeling extremely guilt ridden, he hesitated leaving, again looking at Lisbon's door. He still had time…

Jane went over to the office, tapping softly on her door.

"Come in." Rang Teresa's voice.

Jane opened the door, peering inside before he slid in. Lisbon looked up, and her face contorted into something that looked like she had swallowed something bitter. She rolled her eyes at him. "What do you want Jane?" She said boredly, "Because I'm kind of busy."

Jane timidly walked toward her desk, stopping in front of it with his hands clasped, looking for her forgiveness. "You're right." Jane said, shifting his weight.

Lisbon looked a little bit surprised. "I'm right?" She repeated.

"I don't listen." Jane continued.

"What?" Lisbon looked at him for a moment suspiciously, as if trying to figure out if he was pulling her leg or not.

"I'm sorry." Jane said squeamishly. He wasn't exactly comfortable with apologizing.

Lisbon stared at him, and looked like she was opening her mouth to say something, but then she closed it., instead saying, "Okay." in a high voice.

Jane stood there for several moments, waiting for her to speak, but she didn't say anything more, so he just nodded, "Okay." He exhaled the breath he had been holding and turned to leave, half expecting Lisbon to call out to stop him, but she didn't.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

A/N: Thank you, thank you to reviewers: Jisbon4ever, Anna, Mentalistlover, Waterbaby134, 13 Jo, Missjasadin, Frogster and Rubyredsyn for leaving their comments for chapter 3!

And in reply to 13 Jo, I think it would be great to see some more of Jane's past in the show, especially with his wife, since it's only been alluded to so far. Personally though, I don't think he was probably a very good husband after a while- and that's a big source of his guilt and regret, because I don't think he really had the opportunity to show how much he really did care about them. But whether or not the show actually does delve into his background, I myself plan to explore some more of his past if I can fit them in- his time in the mental hospital, and maybe even when he runs away from the carnival. So, thanks everybody for sticking with me to chapter four! I really love reading your reviews- it means a lot!

Haha, and to those who mentioned it… I love Sudoku too-so I just had to put in a little reference to it!

LOL, I swear I wasn't looking at spoilers, but next weeks' coming episode (from seeing the preview) was sort of eerily similar to the plot I had in mind for the future of this story…

Jane: "Really? … That's spooky."

Thanks so very much everyone for your support!

* * *

It had stopped raining entirely by the time Patrick Jane had reached Mrs. Scott's residence. Jane just finished setting an alarm on his phone for eight, twenty-five. He was looking much nicer, after having shaved, changed his clothes, and actually done something with his mess of hair. Patrick pushed the doorbell with his index finger, standing on her porch, rocking on his heels.

As he waited, Jane listened as little droplets of rain fell from the balcony above, rhythmically making their descent. Soon, the door opened, and the smell of food wafted through the house. Ashley Scott beamed at her guest with unnaturally white teeth as she welcomed him inside. Jane noticed that the house appeared to have been cleaned up some since his last visit earlier that morning. He wondered if it was on account of his visit or because she was somehow feeling liberated.

Jane allowed her to take his coat, and kept one eye on her as she hung it up in the closet.

Ashley turned around, clasping her hands together. "So…Shall we eat?" Ashley proposed awkwardly, sweeping a hand toward her kitchen. Jane agreed and made his way through the house, glancing into the rooms as he passed, putting them into his temporary memory palace, just in case he needed any information later. Jane noticed that the small little airplane figurines that had been there earlier when he had looked around the house, had been put away- perhaps they reminded her too much of her late husband.

They arrived to the kitchen and dining room, that he had not yet been inside. It was a very yellow and cheerful room, with paisley curtains hanging on the windows. Ashley was dancing around him anxiously. "You can just sit down there, and I'll bring the spaghetti- I hope you like spaghetti- it's sort of my own special recipe, I make it with chicken, I hear it's much healthier than using beef…" She said hurriedly.

Jane smiled at her gratefully, "It sounds great." Jane said. He wasn't sure where exactly she had gotten the idea that chicken was more healthy than beef, because it sounded a little ridiculous to him, but he didn't comment on it- figuring he should hold his tongue and be polite. She disappeared into the adjoined kitchen area and Jane, in her absence, poked through some papers that were lying on a small table nearby. He was just lifting it up, when he heard her footsteps approaching, and he hurriedly took his seat.

Ashley came in, holding two plates of steaming hot spaghetti, with white sauce. "Mmm." Jane looked at the pasta that was being placed in front of him. "This looks very good, thank you."

Ashley's smile widened as she sat down across from him at the small, wooden table, putting her own plate down. Jane took a bite, and Ashley watched him with a look of trepidation and anticipation for his review. He chewed, and she watched him anxiously, not eating yet herself. Jane swallowed feeling the pressure.

"It's good." Jane said at last. She relaxed with a sigh, "Oh, I'm glad you like it."

As she began picking at her food and pouring each of them a glass of wine, she started in with idle conversation about her day- which he wasn't particularly interested in, Jane pretended to be listening, whilst he quickly glanced over the room. His eyes targeted a waste basket in the corner- he would have to check out that. "-and I knew that it was just going to be like this, but it's good, because the flowers outside could always use some water." She was saying.

Jane beamed at her, secretly thinking she needed to leave the room. "Yes, it's been pretty dry the last-" He intentionally gestured, knocking over the glass in front of him. It spilled, and Ashley leaped up. "Oh! I'm so sorry- so clumsy of me…" Jane gushed, grabbing the glass to set it upright. The red liquid began rushing over the edge, dripping to the clean tile floor.

"Oh no! I'll go get something to clean that up." She hurried off into the other room. Knowing he hadn't a moment to spare, Jane quickly went over to the waste basket- it was filled with computer paper, and Jane smiled, knowing he had hit the jackpot- as it looked like emails that had been printed out, he quickly folded and pocketed it and returned to his seat.

Ashley returned, mopping up the mess with a dish towel. "I'm very sorry." Jane apologized as she cleared it away.

"That's alright, Patrick." Ashley said sincerely. She left the room again, to put the dish rag in the sink. She returned a few moments later to the table, sitting down to finish her meal, laughing nervously at the awkwardness.

"So, Mr. Jane..."

"Ashley?" Jane replied with a relaxed smile.

Ashley began asking about his life and how he learned his mentalism tricks. Jane told her about how he had studied it from a young age, performing in a traveling carnival circuit with his father. She seemed fascinated by this idea as she asked him various questions about his life there and what it was like.

"I suppose you've dreamed of…running away?" Patrick asked.

Ashley smiled, this time a tinge of sadness entering her eyes. "Yes, I have. Many times. But then, who doesn't dream of escape?"

Jane reached out, touching her hand that was resting on the table top. Ashley looked down at his comforting touch. "But, you're free now, aren't you?" Jane said.

Ashley's brows contracted for a moment, and then she shrugged.

"I know your husband wasn't a very loving man to you. He left you here, alone, for such a long time, didn't he?" Jane asked soothingly.

Slowly, Ashley nodded.

"You loved him once though and so you didn't do anything about it…You just did as you were told, like any good wife would I expect… But, with all that time he spent away, you suspected him of being unfaithful on his long business trips- they had increased over the past year, hadn't they?" Jane was watching her very closely. Guilt passed into her expression. "You had him followed, didn't you? -I wouldn't blame you." Jane added quickly. "He stopped communicating with you, and you just had to know what it was that he was doing."

Ashley's brilliant blue eyes became clouded with tears, and again, she shook her head to verify it.

"What did you find out?" Jane asked, studying her intently with his green eyes.

Ashley quickly wiped away her tears, looking up at him. "Nothing- it was nothing… He was just doing business… He…he was working with some man in Texas, I think it was?- I'm not really sure what it was all about, but he was calling and emailing him a lot." She sniffed, trying to pull herself together. "But it was just business I suppose, I never really understood what it was that he did- but it appeared from the emails they were exchanging that it was just some sort of transaction of sorts…"

"Did you copy all of his emails?"

"Well…I… I have his email address and the password to the account, if that would help." Ashley said quickly.

"I don't really think it would, because whoever killed your husband took his computer, and I imagine has already deleted any data or any other important evidence." Jane replied.

"Oh, well, yes… I…"

Jane pulled out the papers from his pocket he had extracted from the trash-bin. Ashley looked a little surprised that he had gotten a hold of them.

"Are these all of the papers?" Jane asked her. She opened her mouth, apparently going to question why he had been searching through her garbage, but Jane interrupted her. "This is very important, Ashley. You need closure… you need to be able to move on with your life, and you're not going to be able to do that until you've gotten justice. Something tells me that this is going to solve your husband's murder."

Ashley exhaled, nodding, her blue eyes shining as they looked at him stricken and wide-eyed.

"I have a few more things- um… there were pictures people sent in…" She said slowly. "For whatever reason, my husband put a classified ad in a paper in Texas for this man that he was working with, and the men who responded sent in photos of themselves…Wait…" Ashley got up and Jane followed her into a nearby office- it was messy and a bit unorganized, there wasn't much room to move around. She immediately bent down, opening up a desk drawer. "I have them here somewhere…" Ashley shuffled around through papers, at last drawing them out. Her eyes moved over the documents. "Here they are." She said, handing them over.

Jane held them up to look at the pictures- there were various photos of middle-aged men. Jane looked at the email that forwarded one of the images to what appeared to be Mr. Scott's business partner. It was short and simple. It read:

Here's the photo. He looks good. Respond asap, and I will book him.

Jane's eyes scanned the rest of the page, to the small thumbnail picture. It was a brunette man in his forties, tall, not bad looking with a full head of hair and blue eyes. He was smiling faintly in the photo.

Patrick turned to the next document, which was much closer to the date of Mr. Scott's death, which read:

Leaving for the hotel. I have the merchandise. Call me. 743-4332.

"This is very interesting." Patrick said, internally thinking 'Bingo' as he silently mused to himself that this must be it.

Ashley cleared her throat, "Would you…er…like desert?" She asked. Ashley smiled at him warmly and Jane was uncomfortably aware that her pupils were dilated. But saving Jane from answering her question, the alarm he had set earlier on his phone began to ring. Jane put up a finger and grabbed the phone, clicking the button to make it stop, as he held the receiver up to his ear, as if he were talking to someone. "Hello, Jane here…Yes…Alright… You need me to come in? …Right now?… Alright, I will. Thanks." Jane snapped the phone closed, and dropped it into his pocket. Giving Ashley an apologetic look, Patrick said gently, "Sorry, I have to go- _work_, you know."

Ashley looked disappointed, but nodded in understanding. "Of course. Thank you so much for coming, it was a pleasure." She said.

Patrick nodded with a bright smile, "Thank you, Ashley." He took her hand and kissed it. Ashley looked shocked, but pleased none-the-less.

* * *

A little over an hour later, Jane's silver car had pulled into the CBI parking lot, and he was going up the lift to the offices to announce the great news that all they would have to do would be to look up the phone records for this particular number, but as he came in, Lisbon was beginning to shut up her office- apparently going to call it an early night. Jane paused, drawing back as he heard her talking on the phone.

"I'd like that." She was saying in a sweet voice to her lover. Patrick could only imagine that Brad was calling her some other sort of bakery item over the phone. "Mmm, that sounds good. I hope so!" She purred. "Nope, there's not really too many leads at the moment…yeah… I know, I know… I do too… Alright… buh-bye."

Jane waited until he heard her hang up, before he appeared around the corner, as if he had only just arrived. Lisbon avoided looking at him as she was making a show of putting things away, determined not to raise her eyes to his. Jane stood there, feeling a little shunted- really, was what he 'did' really all _that_ bad? Why was she trying to pretend that he didn't exist? He had, after-all, apologized, hadn't he?

Jane cleared his throat, and said boldly, "I found the killer."

Lisbon glanced up at him, an expression of confusion entering her eyes. "_What_? How?"

Jane pulled out the printed documents, including the one that had the number on it. Lisbon grabbed the papers, looking them over. "How did you get this? I just had Cho access the email account about an hour ago and there was nothing like _this_..."

Jane rolled his eyes, "Do use your mind woman." Lisbon gave him an affronted look, so Jane sighed, spoon-feeding her to explain what he meant. "The killer took the man's computer, _which means_, he probably already accessed the email account before you checked it and erased all of the messages before-hand. _But_- here's the catch-" Jane raised a finger for suspense, "What the killer _didn't _know, is that there was a copy of the emails printed out before he was able to get rid of them."

Lisbon gaped at him for a moment, her mind apparently processing this information, and then coming to a conclusion. "You mean, Mrs. Scott had these and she didn't hand them over?" She burst out.

Jane shrugged, "She didn't think there was any importance in them."

Lisbon looked annoyed for a few moments. "Well, of course it's important, I don't know why she'd with-hold this type of information." She said, looking back down at the sheet of paper.

"_Ohhh, _who wants to admit that they're the jealous type, spying on their spouse?" Jane said offhandedly. "Point is, we have the information now, and you can easily run the number in your little database, trace the number of this fellow who knew where Mr. Scott would be with this so called 'merchandise' and track him down." Jane said.

Lisbon put her coat back down on her chair and grabbed the piece of paper, "Cho?" She called out.

Jane sat down on her couch, listening to her footsteps going away down to the bullpen.

He sighed, feeling tired, as he loosened his shirt around his neck to get comfortable. His face felt itchy from recently shaving, after not keeping up with it as much. Jane ran a hand over his scratchy chin and closed his eyes, relaxing back. He slipped into a light sleep, but was quickly reawakened.

"Jane!" Lisbon said.

His green eyes popped open and he sat up as if he had been shot. "Yeah?"

"We tracked the phone number, and we got a name." She informed him.

"Oh, okay, that's good." Jane said, feeling slightly annoyed that he was woken up for this.

"The man was a con-artist going by the name of Dan Randolf. Apparently, he moved in with this rich old lady about nine months ago in Texas- I guess he reminded her of her son, who died in the war- that's what friends of the woman say." Lisbon explained quickly. "Well, two months later, she's signing everything over to him, giving him power of attorney and everything."

Jane smirked.

"Well…Last week, he sent her out of town, and took all of her credit cards- maxed them out and apparently transferred funds into another over-seas account. He was probably in business with Mr. Scott, who had an airline company. I imagine he was going to have himself flown out of the country, maybe they were going to share the money- and then last minute, Mr. Scott backed out- so the con-man killed him." Lisbon said.

"Alright, great… so, go arrest the guy." Jane said, closing his eyes again, laying back down, clasping his hands behind his head like a pillow.

"We can't." Lisbon replied.

Jane opened his mouth to question it, but she interrupted. "The police working on the case, found him down by some water south of Sacramento… It looks like he shot himself in the face- the rain has washed away most of any evidence, but it looks like suicide… but he had all the credit cards in his pockets, and an apology note. He's dead."

Jane opened his eyes again, looking over at her. "Really?" Jane said.

"Really." Lisbon sighed, throwing the documents on the table. "The worst part of it is that the old woman that he robbed blind is left with absolutely nothing."

Jane felt a twinge of guilt, as he looked up at the stained ceiling from water leakage, remembering a time when his father and him had done a similar con-job on an elderly woman and her dying granddaughter. The trust that they had to gain over them, so that they'd be able to get to their entire savings. He himself had felt so badly afterward, that he had actually placed his hand on that candle flame they were using as a trick, for real. That, of course had hurt, but his father was so excited about winning the money that he hadn't even noticed the bandage Jane had wrapped around his fingers when he gave him his one hundred dollar bill, before going off to inevitably lose it all in the poker game out back in the bone yard. It had been the most money Jane had ever seen at one time, and he had saved it in that jacket pocket, willing himself not to spend it until he was able to get out of the carnival and away from his fathers' empty promises.

"You okay?" Lisbon asked, looking concernedly at Jane's remorseful expression.

"That's the second time you've asked me that today." Jane said, with a small smile.

Lisbon stared at him for a few seconds, with an unreadable look on her face.

"You've been acting funny lately." Lisbon responded softly.

Jane grimaced, "_No _I haven't."

"Yes you have." Lisbon replied. Her eyes went over him, looking at him closely. "I was going to say that you haven't been taking care of yourself, but it looks like you cleaned up tonight and actually was able to find a razor."

Jane chuckled.

"Is there a reason?" Lisbon asked, blinking.

"Oh, I went over for dinner at Mrs. Scotts' house."

"Mrs. Scott? She invited _you_ for dinner_?" _Lisbon said skeptically_._

"Believe it or not Lisbon, not everyone finds me such a source of annoyance and irritation as you do."

Lisbon looked like she was about to argue, but then changed her mind. Suddenly looking just a little bit furious with him. She turned and began to put her jacket on, grabbing the bag she brought in with her, rifling through it to ensure everything was there.

"What?" Jane asked, frowning at her agitated state.

"Nothing." Lisbon said shrilly. "I'm leaving…. It's late…. Do you want to get out of my office? Otherwise, you're going to be locked in here all night."

Jane sat up and swung his legs over to the couch edge, standing up, giving her a smile. "You're still angry with me." Jane said.

"Why would I be angry with you?" Lisbon said flippantly, not looking at him.

Jane put his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him. She glowered at him, and smacked his hands off. "Don't touch me, Jane." Lisbon ordered. Jane stepped back, putting his hands up where she could see them. Lisbon grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "Go on…get out." She nodded toward the door with her head.

Jane blinked, feeling a little off-putted, he obeyed her and she followed him out, putting the keys in her office door, locking it up. Jane stood there, waiting to speak to her, but she took off to the elevator, leaving before he even had the chance. Jane stood alone in that dark, empty corridor, staring in the direction she had went off in such a huff in. He uneasily shifted his weight and turned around, considering his options.

Jane began climbing up the stairs to the attic. It was time to get back to work. He decided.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

A/N:

A big thank you to reviewers Country2776, Jisbon4ever, rubyredsyn, waterbaby134, Frogster and 13 Jo!

Patrick Jane is good at manipulating people, and it's definitely easy to get one-over on a very desperate woman such as a dear leech like Ashley! She is dependent for someone to tell her what to do. The polar opposite of Teresa Lisbon who enjoys being in control of her life at all times! It's definitely irksome for Lisbon to be hassled about going out with someone, whilst it's okay for Jane to attend a dinner- how is that for a double-standard?

To Rubyredsyn, Jane has similar thoughts! Kudos for picking that one up, that was an Easter egg I put in there for someone to catch- and you did, so you get the grand prize of being labeled the mentalist for that! J

In reply to Frogster, I don't plan to change my story outcome, thankfully it wasn't quite as similar as I thought it would be, but still- kidnapping? Who would have thought!

Now… Here's chapter five… Honestly guys, this would not even be continued if it wasn't for your support, I'm not kidding- so thanks very much!

* * *

The morning came far too early and Jane hadn't gotten much sleep. Again, piles of papers, books and files were littering the attic, where he had been working all night on the Red John case. Jane sat up and stretched, his fresh clothes he had worn the night before were now all wrinkled and his hair was tussled and sticking up awkwardly in all different directions. Today he was too lazy to even pick up the mess he had made, so instead, he stepped over it, and headed down to freshen up and make himself some tea.

As he trotted down the stairs, Patrick glanced into the bullpen to see his yawning co-worker Rigsby, bright-looking Van Pelt, and stoic-as-ever Cho typing away at his computer. He smiled to himself at this and went into the bathroom staring at his bloodshot eyes in the mirror before splashing his face with some cold water. Jane went and opened up the locker assigned to him and pulled out his toothbrush, brushing his teeth. Jane blinked, focusing his green eyes on his own reflection. He made a note to himself to get an additional light for the attic upstairs. All the staring at papers in dim lighting was making his eyes go bad. Jane slammed his locker shut after replacing his belongings and walked out and down the hall to go into the kitchen.

Pulling out the teapot from the cupboard where it sat waiting for him, Patrick filled it with water and put it on the stove, waiting for it to boil. Jane rolled up his sleeves to his elbows that had fell loose, and reached for the box of teabags. Jane heard heavy footsteps coming inside behind him and he turned to see Lisbon's Brad rummaging through the food that was for visitors, he seemed to be looking for something in particular, and Jane was quite sure no one would be looking for chips or other high sodium foods in the morning time. Jane saw a box of blue-berry muffins, and glanced at Brad, before swiping them and placing them inside a drawer behind him.

Jane leaned up on the counter beside Brad. "Hello Baby-cakes." Jane said to him in a cheery voice.

Brad started and looked up at him with annoyance. "Oh it's you." He said.

"It's me!" Jane said with confidence.

Brad was looking quite fresh and dapper today. Jane sniffed the air, Brad had the essence of men's shaving crème. Well, at least he didn't smell like Lisbon… Jane smiled, thinking secretly that maybe this was why he was looking so grumpy and entitled. Brad didn't seem to like whatever implications Jane was making privately, as his shoulders had risen, making him look more broad chested. It was an action any male would present to it's rival in the wild- he was merely just regressing back to his primitive ways, which was humorous being that he was trying to appear so evolved with his finely pressed shirt and styled hair. What could Lisbon possibly see in this guy?

"So…Baby-cakes…" Jane said slowly.

"It's Brad." He snapped back irritably. "Bradley Cooper."

"_Brad- _sorry, my mistake. What is it that you do for a living?" Patrick asked.

"I'm a psychiatrist." Brad responded shortly.

Jane's stomach did an internal lurch. He hated psychiatrists and their incessant habit to dig inside ones' head. Though, most would do it to 'help' others with extreme neurosis and their inabilities to cope, he supposed. Truthfully, It was pretty much the same thing he had done as a psychic, however, Brad just didn't seem the type for this sort of work.

"Not a very caring psychiatrist." Jane said thoughtfully. "I don't really think the job title would suit you."

Brad glanced at him, and his eyes wavered on the wedding band on Jane's finger for a moment before raising them back up to meet his eyes with dislike. "I'm a _forensic_ psychiatrist." Brad explained.

"Ohh, so basically you're a shrink for criminals."

"Well, I'm so glad I don't have to explain it to you." Brad replied smartly, his face snarled slightly. "What's your job title here anyway?"

Jane smiled in amusement at the way he was irritating Brad, "I'm a consultant."

"So basically you're a wanna-be detective without the badge, the gun or the training." Brad surmised.

"I suppose that's one way to put it." Jane replied. "But I'm the top wanna-be - as you put it, that the CBI has."

"That's not saying much." Brad replied with a wry smile. "Especially since I don't see too many others here."

Jane grinned, masking his true feelings of annoyance at such a cut down.

"Well, that's just because you're not used to being on top of much of anything." Jane replied, his smile not reaching his eyes. "What are you doing in the kitchen anyway? Couldn't afford to buy yourself breakfast this morning?" Jane asked with that same genial cheeriness in his voice.

"_No, _I'm in here because Teresa asked me to come and get her a muffin." Brad replied mocking Jane's voice.

"You're very childish aren't you?" Jane asked, pointing at his expression with a long index finger.

"No, I think you're talking about yourself again. Didn't your mother ever tell you that it was rude to point?" Brad asked.

Jane shrugged, putting both hands in his pockets as he swayed on his heels, trying to give off the impression of a wretched individual who was deeply troubled. "Never had one. She killed herself after I was born, postpartum depression or something of the sort- tragic really." Jane replied with a heaving exhale, shaking his head and screwing his face into a piteous look for show.

Brad didn't seem to be buying it, but he made no comment. Instead continuing his search through the visitors' cabinet. Jane's teapot began whistling soon enough and so the consultant busied himself with pouring himself a cup just so; The milk always went in first, then the water, and then the teabag for exactly two minutes- stirred, clock-wise five times, then counter-clock-wise five times, until he reached 120 stirs, then he'd remove the spoon and the teabag. As he did this procedure, Jane began thinking about the Scott case. Something about it just hadn't seemed right about it since Lisbon had pronounced that Dan Randolph, the con-man had committed suicide. Why would anyone kill themselves after getting all of that money? Guilt? That was illogical.

The time was up, and Jane tossed the teabag into the small trash can. Brad was beginning to appear a little frustrated as he bent down looking else-where for the muffins. Jane smiled, as he carefully opened the drawer behind him and swiped the box of muffins himself.

"Happy hunting." Jane said to Brad, as he walked away toward Lisbon's office- Brad would probably be busy for at least another ten minutes at the speed he was going.

As Patrick went down the hall, Rigsby was heading toward the kitchen and Jane gave him one of the muffins from the box.

"Oh, thanks Jane, that's what I was about to go get!" Rigsby exclaimed, holding the small cake in his hand.

Jane nodded. "I know."

Rigsby shook his head, staring at him in disbelief. "You've gotta be psychic." He turned and headed back to the office, no doubt to tell Cho and Van Pelt all about it.

Patrick smiled to himself in amusement at Rigsby's childlike wonder and continued down the hall coming to Lisbon's door- it was open slightly. He poked his head around the opening and squeezed in. Lisbon looked up at him from her desk with just her eyes at his conduct with an annoyed look. She was probably wondering why he bothered looking so silly and didn't just open the door for easier access.

Jane smiled, it was amusing to him that his antics were so weird and irksome to her. Jane and Lisbon came from two completely opposite worlds- at the carnival, everyone was a little quirky or had personal issues of some sort, so everyone just fit in. Here, in the CBI, he was like a shiny object inside a drawer of knickknacks.

Jane came over to her desk and placed one of the muffins there for her, giving her the type of look a puppy dog might when expecting praise for retrieving the morning paper. Lisbon looked at it, surprise entering her expression for a mere moment.

"What's this for?" Lisbon asked blankly.

"For you." Jane replied.

"I told Brad to get me one of these." She said slowly.

"Oh, yeah, well… he's still looking for them. He's a persistent fellow though- I've got to give him that." Jane replied with a grin.

Lisbon gave him a reproachful look, then pushed herself up, intending to go and inform Brad that he could stop his search.

"No, Lisbon- wait, I wanted to speak to you." Jane intercepted quickly. Lisbon stopped, glaring at him before sinking back into her chair. "Speak to me about what, Jane?"

"I don't think he killed himself."

Lisbon blinked in confusion. "What?"

"The con-man. Why would he?"

Lisbon looked at him for a moment, registering what he was talking about. "I don't know… Maybe he regretted what he did, maybe he…" Lisbon sighed with exasperation watching as Jane was shaking his head. "Well, what do you think happened then? Why don't you just tell me?"

"Because it's good for you to guess." Jane replied.

Her green eyes went to the ceiling and she gave him an impatient look. "Well? You gonna tell me?"

"Mr. Scott put an add in the newspaper, remember? The men who sent their photos in… Mr. Scott sent the photo to the con-man, asking for his approval, as if they were looking for a particular look…" Jane waited for her to catch on, trying to get her fully involved in the conversation.

"What, you're saying he was looking for a doppelganger?" Lisbon gaped, realization hitting her. "So, he kidnapped that man in the photograph, killed him and made it look like a suicide?"

Jane smiled, "Exactly! But see, he didn't want this murder or disappearance traced to himself, so he involved our poor victim Mr. Scott in it to get the double and the gun, and they'd live happily ever after with a whole lot of cash, after he got flown out of the country by Mr. Scott's private airliner. But Mr. Scott decided he didn't want to go through with it, and so the con-man took the gun, shot him and then went through with the plan to get off _scot_-free! No pun intended."

Lisbon looked doubtful.

"Come on, you really think his conscience plagued him so much that he wanted to shoot himself? The easiest solution would have been to just return the money, wouldn't it?" Jane proposed.

Lisbon sighed reluctantly, "Great, so this means, the case isn't closed." Lisbon said under her breath. She picked up her phone and dialed the extension. "Cho, we're re-opening the case…Yeah…. Jane says that the suicide was a fake. I want you to look up the man in the photograph, see if the DNA matches with his. Also, look and see if there's a missing persons case in Texas that fits that description."

Jane smiled, it was certainly a clever plan the con-man had devised, but not quite clever enough. Now the only task would be to find him. By the description of the photograph that he had chosen for a doppelganger, He would be around six foot, have blue eyes and brown hair, in his early to mid-forties…Brad opened the door, peering inside Lisbon's office. Jane looked at him as he came in- he certainly did fit the profile.

"Honey, I couldn't find the-" Brad went silent as his eyes went to the desk where a single muffin stood, then his gaze went to Jane, wariness entering his look.

Lisbon hung up the phone, looking at her boyfriend in a guilty manner for neglecting him in the kitchen for his useless search. "Oh, Brad- I was going to go tell you that you could stop looking- Jane found it for me." She said feebly.

Brad looked miffed, but tried to disguise it. Jane watched him suspiciously. "That's alright Teresa, I understand." Brad put his hand on his hip, irritation with the situation evident in his very stance at being put-off so. Jane smirked at him, _the egoist_.

Lisbon cleared her throat. "Um… Sorry Brad, something came up. The case has been re-opened."

Jane watched Brad's eyebrows raise slightly in surprise. "Really?" Brad said with interest. "Why?" He was awfully interested, wasn't he?

"Jane thinks that Dan Randolph, the con-artist found a doppelganger to make it look like he killed himself."

Brad glanced over at Jane, sneering at him. "So what he says goes then?"

Lisbon gaped at him for a moment, and her face turned apologetic. "Look, Brad…"

Brad shook his head, putting up a hand to silence her. "It's fine… I'll just… I'll pick you up tonight at seven." With that, he left. Jane couldn't help but grin at that departure that might have only be paired with tears and a temper tantrum to effectively appear what a maturity of a two year old might deliver, and unfortunately, Patrick hadn't managed to compose his face quickly enough for Lisbon, who glared at him. Jane looked over at her feeling her hateful gaze and shrugged, "What?"

"There's no need to look so pleased with yourself."

"Oh, I was just thinking…" Jane said.

"You gonna play that silly game again?" Lisbon asked in exasperation.

Jane looked at her in confusion, "Silly game?"

"Yeah, where you say that you're thinking something and don't tell me what it is, just so I have to ask." Lisbon said.

"No, that wasn't my intention." He replied, sighing in irritation- he could be serious when need be, there was no need for her to be so condescending toward him. "I was merely going to state my thoughts, but since you interrupted me…"

Lisbon looked murderous.

Jane quickly began to share his opinions knowing it best not to put his head in the lion's mouth. "It's just that Dan Randolf has a certain look to him…A brunette, blue eyed, around average height…and it seems this Brad showed up in a rather convenient time line don't you think?"

Lisbon stared at him for a moment, and then she laughed. "What? You're saying Brad is the- oh my god, Jane!" Jane watched her seriously as she continued chuckling, but then she seemed to have noticed that he wasn't laughing. "Brad is _NOT _Dan Randolph."

"Prove to me that he isn't." Jane said stubbornly.

"He's not." Lisbon replied snappishly. "Now I don't want this brought up again."

Jane held up his hands at her livid expression, "Alright, alright… Fine."

Lisbon opened the file on her desk, jotting down a few notes. "On your way out, can you go tell the team to search the phone records again. I want a full report on exactly how many times Scott was in communication with Randolph, and for how long. Maybe if we can find out where they met, we can further the investigation."

Patrick took it that she wanted him to leave. There was her cold side coming out. Teresa Lisbon was like that. If she felt wronged she'd become about as frigid as a day old corpse. She'd been giving this treatment to Grace Van Pelt since the affair with Rigsby as well, leaving her back in office again like she had when Grace had been a rookie. It was Lisbon's silent and 'professional' way of getting back at people. It was very passive-aggressive really, and Jane wasn't very fond of this tactic. "Uh, Yeah, sure." He lingered for a few more moments before making his way out to the bull pen where Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt were.

Jane stopped in the doorway, thinking and calculating.

Cho was staring fixedly at his computer, typing away. Van Pelt was once again texting O'Laughlin between her database searches and Rigsby sat there filing, looking rather depressed. _Perfect._

"Rigsby!" Rigsby looked up and Jane nodded at him, beckoning him to come along. Rigsby sighed and rose from his seat, going toward the consultant. "What is it Jane?" He asked.

"Let's go for a little trip." Jane replied.

"Did Lisbon OK this?" Rigsby asked suspiciously.

Jane gave him an endearing look, "Of course she did!" He put on a falsely offended expression. "It's almost like you don't believe me!"

Cho glanced up with a skeptical look, shaking his head. Rigsby looked around anxiously and then sighed. "Oh Alright." He said, deciding not to argue. Patrick smiled deviously and motioned for the agent to follow him along for a little expedition that he had planned.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A big thank you to Waterbaby134, Country2776, Jisbon4ever, Frogster, MentalistLover, 13 Jo and Rubyredsyn for adding their comments to chapter five! Sorry for taking so long to update, I was working in Atlanta on a new TV show as a background actor that will air next year on MTV. Since being on set and working with the actors, now I'm kind of psyched to see it!

To Frogster in question of eye color, I remember watching a very funny on-set interview of Simon Baker where he stated himself that his eyes were green, the woman interviewing him was hilarious and kept teasing him with the sexiest man issue with him on the cover. Well, she was teasing him by reading the first part of the article out loud from that magazine to him that described him as handsome and blue-eyed. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here: "Well, that's very nice, but inaccurate. My eyes are green." I do think his eyes look blue sometimes, but then people ask me all the time if my eyes are green or yellow and they are brown, so maybe they're just extremely light/color reflective like mine are?

Now for a brief change of POV… as Rigsby observes the crazy antics of Jane. This chapter isn't as long, because the next will return to Jane's POV. Enjoy!

* * *

Rigsby's fingers tapped the wheel impatiently as he waited outside the coffee shop for Jane.

"Come on." He murmured to himself. As if he wasn't having a bad enough day what with O'Laughlin parading around the office, spouting out impressive bouts of information and innocently bragging about all his smarts, abilities, equipment and resources. Still, Rigsby thought to himself smugly, he was a better agent than he. Who needed all that fancy electronics when you had a good agent? After all, When they had worked together on a scene, O'Laughlin hadn't even thought to look in the glove compartment of that car when Jane had been kidnapped a couple months ago… Still, that fingerprint scanning would be a handy thing to have.

Rigsby checked his watch, they had been there for nearly an hour, and he could make out the consultant sitting by the window, the same place he'd been since they had come there. He sighed, stomach rumbling, as he waited, hoping beyond hope that he wasn't about to pull some crazy stunt that he would be blamed for later. Rigsby already had the feeling that Lisbon wasn't very fond of him.

Sure, she included him because they had worked on the same team for a while now, but Lisbon still felt the need to be icy and hard with him. She didn't seem to be that hard on anyone else, except maybe Grace (and only since the affair). Lisbon seemed to love Cho- they were cut from the same cloth- professional, curt, straight-forward.

And Jane? Well, Rigsby knew that Lisbon was extremely annoyed with him about 99% of the time and couldn't stand his embarrassing antics that mortified her, but still, there was a mutual liking there- Jane would sometimes even be able to loosen Lisbon up, which, before Jane had joined the team, he would have said there was no way possible to do that. Rigsby's mind wandered to the strange times he'd walk in on them- like the time Jane had been blinded by an explosion, and he was touching Lisbon's face. Strange. Maybe something was going on between them? They definitely had some sort of chemistry. He could see it, and so could the rest of the team. The way that they'd look into each others' shining eyes, smiling as if enraptured… Rigsby frowned. Sort of hypocritical of her too, considering. Of course, she would have let it slide if it hadn't been for Agent Hightower. Of course they weren't in a relationship though, what was he thinking? Agent Lisbon would never do anything so fool-hardy just for a romp with her colleague. Feelings or not, she'd surely remain professional to get ahead in her career.

Having no one else to blame except for himself, Rigsby sighed miserably.

"Come on Jane."

As Rigsby sat there, looking at the blond consultant who was still sitting by the café's window, and his mind drifted to the conversation that they had while driving over there…

Rigsby had been uncomfortably aware of Jane's sideways glances at his furrowed face. Rigsby's mind was still on Van Pelt and that little ringing phone that gave her constant amusement. He knew that she did not belong to him, and that she was free to do whatever she pleased, but still, did she have to find such a worthy replacement that her thoughts never once drifted to what they had once had?

"You know, she still has some feelings for you." Jane offered. As usual, he seemed to have been reading his mind. How in the world did he always know what he was thinking?

"Huh?" Rigsby asked, stalling for time before he'd have to confront the issue- it was always easier to pretend that you had gone temporarily deaf when the one thing you wanted to avoid discussing was mentioned.

"You heard me." Jane replied simply, glancing at him and then returning his gaze out the window.

There was silence again, only interrupted by Jane telling him directions such as 'turn right here', or 'turn left at the next light'. A motorcyclist with an ugly red bandana wrapped around his scruffy head of red dangling hair in the back cut him off and Rigsby scowled, tapping on his brakes. God, he hated bikers. They really thought that they owned the road.

"You should just talk to her." Jane said offhandedly.

Rigsby sniffed. "Talk to her about what?"

"Tell her how you feel. It would make you feel better."

The agent shrugged his broad shoulders, feeling irritated as he rode up on the cyclists' bumper intentionally. "What am I supposed to say? I mean, it's sort of over, isn't it?"

"It is if you say it is." The consultant said, tightening his grasp on his chair arm as Rigsby slammed on his brakes jerking the car violently as the motorcyclist he was riding up on switched into the right lane.

"It is." Rigsby replied shortly. He glared over at the man on the motorcycle, who was grinning ear-to-tattooed-ear. He imagined that this guy was O'Laughlin, laughing at his failures. Jane glanced at the cyclist too and then smirked at his colleague.

"You're still angry about it." Jane said.

"Who says I'm angry?" Rigsby sped up, passing the biker.

"Uh, I do." Jane's eyes went to the side mirror nervously as the car's speed increased, watching the motorcycle as it drew speed, doing a wheelie as it passed by them. Rigsby's mouth grew into a smirk as he turned the siren on. The biker fell back, looking bewildered. Rigsby had won. The conversation had ceased from that point on, and he had been sitting in the car waiting for Jane's 'signal' since.

"Just wait for me to signal for you to come in." Jane had said.

"Okay." Rigsby had shrugged, figuring that it wouldn't take too long.

Little did he know.

Rigsby restlessly shifted himself around, putting the car seat back a bit to get more comfortable. He closed his eyes putting his head back. Rigsby saw images of Grace in his mind, remembering the smell of her perfume and her fervent glances at him in the office, giving him a secretive smile. His cell phone began to ring, causing him to jump and Rigsby's eyes popped open in surprise. _God, please don't let it be Lisbon_…

Rigsby grabbed his cell phone, anxiously looking at the caller ID and sighing with relief. It was Cho. He answered it, holding it up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Rigsby?"

"Yeah, it's me. What is it?"

"Where are you?"

Rigsby looked around at his surroundings. "Uhh… Outside a café, in a parking lot."

"Okay." Cho replied. Not asking questions.

"Is there something you wanted?"

"Yeah, we got a lead. Apparently Mr. Smith was involved in a gambling ring, and we're going to pull in a guy that claims he knew him- the suspect for the murder might have been involved in it too, so you should get over here, Lisbon is going to want Jane to help question this guy- he's a shark." Cho replied.

Of course, she'd need Jane. Rigsby's voice turned a bit defensive. "Well, I can't get over there until Jane comes on. He's been in this café for about an hour."

"Why don't you just call him and tell him to come on?" Cho asked.

Rigsby sighed in irritation, he hadn't thought of that. "Ok, I will, listen, if Gra-" Rigsby glanced up at the café and saw a fight breaking out. His stomach did a flip as his eyes scanned over to the window, and Jane wasn't over there anymore sitting as he had been- he had missed the signal he'd been waiting for! "I've got to go!" Rigsby practically threw the phone down not waiting for an answer as he jumped out of the car, running up to break up whatever was going on.

He opened the door and people were backed up in the doorway, watching the fight taking place. Rigsby pushed through them roughly, and broke through the small crowd. Jane was backing up with his hands in front of him ("Woah, woah!") and a brunette guy came toward him and punched him hard in the jaw, knocking him down, getting on top of him to hit him some more, spewing hateful words with every punch. "HEY!" Rigsby rushed forward grabbing the guy on top by the waist, and hauling him backward with all of his strength, throwing him into one of the tables. "You're under arrest for assault on an officer." Rigsby said to the man, pulling him around and linking his wrists with his handcuffs. The man cursed.

Jane sat up looking tussled from his boxing match. "Why didn't you come sooner?" He whined at Rigsby.

Rigsby turned his head and looked at him innocently, "Sorry."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

A/N: Thank you to reviewers' waterbaby134, Mentalistlover, Jisbon4ever, Frogster, LittleMender, and Country2776- as well as all the people who added this story to the watch list and to their favorites. I appreciate it!

To LittleMender: Thank you! I am glad you think so, that's so nice of you to say! I do have a pretty good plot planned, so I'm hoping to start getting it into fruition soon, but I think set up is important to a story. As time goes on, more is revealed in the show and I'm trying to make this story as canon as possible (it's sort of based in a near future of the show's time line-lol)

To Frogster: I was trying to find that particular interview on youtube because that is initially where I had seen it, but it appeared that it had been removed, which is a bummer. Perhaps someone else knows where it can be found elsewhere? If so, message me on here with the link and I'll share it! It was hysterical. The woman interviewing Simon was a spit-fire, and Simon stood no chance with her! Simon tried to get her uncomfortable and she turned it around on him to the point of embarrassment! Jisbon4ever stated that She'd seen the interview as well, any idea where? I'd like to see it again myself.

To Jisbon4ever: The show I worked on is called "Teen Wolf". Actors Tyler and Dylan were both very friendly on set, as were the crew and I just had a lot of fun working on it! I'm trying to write down everything that happened in the three days I was there for my own private memoirs, but it's still a work in progress. LOL!

Anyway, I really was inspired to write today, and even though I don't typically write another chapter so soon after I have posted a previous one… I figure, hey, it was sort of a short chapter, and it was a slow day today and I got to writing this for whatever reason (I don't question inspiration, I just go with it) so…here it is! Enjoy!

I had fun writing this one…

* * *

Patrick Jane rubbed his jaw where Brad's fist had made contact, it was dully aching and a bruise was forming where he'd been punched. Jane was waiting. He wasn't sure what was going to happen next. A livid Teresa Lisbon had ordered him to sit in her office and wait for her. Jane was sure that she was trying to clear Brad from all charges. So, his hunch was wrong. Brad wasn't the killer. There was no need to over-react as everyone seemed to be doing.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair trying to see if there was any sign of her coming. This had to be one of the tensest moments he had ever spent in her office. After all, what if she wanted him removed from her team and transferred to another? Jane rather liked the team he was on now, and there was obviously no chance he'd be fired (as Hightower had stated to him in her office when she had first started at the CBI, "You're golden.") but that didn't mean he was safe from other forms of punishment, that truthfully, Jane would probably find even less appealing.

Lisbon was approaching around the corner, and Jane quickly turned to look down at his hands in his lap, and took a deep breath to relax his general appearance- he didn't want to appear apprehensive in her presence. The door opened and Lisbon came in huffily, taking her time to sit down at her desk, saying nothing to him. Jane glanced up at her as she straightened the items on her desk. That wasn't a good sign. Everyone knew that if Lisbon was straightening her desk, it meant some sort of hell would surely follow this action.

"Lisbon, look, I-" Patrick began.

"No, Jane." Lisbon snapped. Her green eyes glared at him coldly. "You had no right- you _have_ no right to even speak to me!"

He closed his mouth, frowning, as he waited. She went back to straightening her desk and Jane found himself rolling his eyes irritably at her behavior. "If you think by making me wait for you to finish your unnecessary task is going to somehow give you the appearance that you have complete control over the situation, you're mistaken." Jane said. "If you're busy, I'll return in twenty minutes when you're ready to talk."

Lisbon's eyes flashed dangerously. He smirked, he knew he'd hit the mark. "Do you think this is funny, Jane?" Lisbon questioned. "Because I don't find it very amusing."

"Everything is funny if you look at it the right way." Jane answered simply. "In any case, I think you're being rather foolish."

Lisbon gaped at him. "I'm the one being foolish?" Lisbon laughed satirically. She took her hand off the framed photograph of her dog on her desk. "I'm not the one going around accusing people of murdering others out of jealousy or whatever the hell you want to call yourself."

Jane shrugged uncomfortably, feeling anger ebbing at him at this unfair statement. "No, now, you've got to admit yourself that in _my _perspective my actions were justified. You can't deny that the appearance of Brad was eerily similar to Randolph's' description and the timing in which he came into this office-"

Lisbon held up her hand, shaking her head. "I don't want to hear it Jane! You were childish, stupid and out of line!" She exclaimed.

"… Not to mention, you don't give me much credit for anything do you? You really think that I wouldn't do a little research on the guy that I'm dating? You know, I do have a whole background database at my fingertips." She said indicating her computer.

"Maybe you should have _thought_ to ask me a few questions if you had any concerns, instead of acting like a pig-headed, cocky know-it-all and maybe then you'd learn a thing or two about common sense!"

Jane opened his mouth to argue that he _had _tried to discuss the similarities about Brad and the suspect in question, but she had dismissed it. She interrupted him before he had the chance though.

"-You know, there was a time when I solved cases without you. My entire team here is capable of solving a case without you. And truthfully? I think you need us a whole lot more than we need you. The only reason I keep you around is because I'm worried that you'd do something _stupid_ if you were on your own."

Jane sat back, crossing his arms and looking away, feeling insulted. He was done talking to her if that's all she was going to say about him. He couldn't understand why she was always trying to discredit him so. She seemed to enjoy the introspective illusion that she had more to do with solving the cases than he did. This was rarely—if ever—true. If she had gone with a lot of her choices for the killer, she would have put a lot of innocent people in prison. She was just jealous because everyone else credited him, and she couldn't handle being in his shadow.

Lisbon smiled in triumph. "Oh what? You're going to make me wait, like it'll make you appear like you have complete control over the situation?" She asked condescendingly.

Jane glared at her suddenly. How dare she use his own words against him on top of everything else? Jane pushed himself up, moving around his chair.

"Where are you going Jane? I'm not finished-"Jane shut the office door behind him walking away. "Now who's acting foolish?" He heard her yell after him. Jane ignored her and climbed the stairs to the attic room.

Jane slammed the door behind him. He moved into the room, stepping over the papers littering the floor and sat down on his makeshift bed, pulling out the William Blake poem book from under his pillow that contained the list of employees that were working the night that Todd had been burned alive in the CBI holding cell. There were names that Jane had already crossed out as unlikely candidates to be working with Red John. Patrick Jane realized he needed to stay focused from now on. He needed to forget the other cases and stay on track with the one that he wanted to solve most desperately.

He didn't need Lisbon to lecture him on what he should do. Nor to say to him basically that he wouldn't be able to survive without her. That wasn't true. He'd taken care of himself all of his life- he'd pulled himself out of poverty and bad situations, even becoming somewhat a famous figure. Did she believe that it had been easy for him? No. He'd always made the best out of what he had, which wasn't much. For Lisbon to say that she didn't need him working on the team after the long hours he had contributed to her cases that could have been better spent working on Red John was insulting! Well, if she didn't need him, he wasn't going to help her any longer. That was it.

Jane dismissed her from his mind and focused on the task before him…

* * *

Hours passed, and his eyes were dry and tired, staring at the white pieces of paper in front of him. Jane's stomach had been rumbling for a while now, but he ignored his hunger—he knew it was childish of him, but he was not willing to go downstairs as of yet. He put his list down, rubbing his sore jaw with a sigh. Feeling exhaustion approaching, he laid down, trying to get comfortable, which was difficult being that his current state was in great need of many things- such as a nice cup of tea, maybe a sandwich, an icepack and maybe a couple of aspirins. Somehow sleep overcame him and he dreamed for a bit, nonsensically.

Patrick was sitting on his couch in the CBI, and yet the entire place was falling apart. The ceiling was crumbling every now and again. Cho seemed oblivious to it, as he was sitting at his desk- what he thought was working. But he was actually reading a book- Jane looked closer, the title said 'Tyger, Tyger'. Frowning, he looked around the rest of the office. Rigsby was bringing in closed case pizza with Van Pelt on his arm dressed in a short strappy number with high heels.

"Pizza!" Rigsby announced, setting it down on his desk. Everyone in the entire office (not even from their team) jumped up to get in line, forcing Jane to the back of the queue and by the time he got up to the front, the pizza was all gone.

From there, the dream shifted, and Lisbon was yelling at the team for playing hopscotch at one of the crime scenes. Rigsby was singing, surprisingly well, trying to impress Grace, and Cho was rolling his toy car about. Hightower entered then and asked if anyone had seen her telephone, because it was missing from her desk. "I hear it ringing!" Jane exclaimed. It sounded like it was coming from his pocket! The telephone rang, and rang-

Jane woke up, realizing that it was his own phone. Sleepily, he grabbed at it, pulling it out and fumbling to open it.

"Hello?"

"_Jane? It's Cho."_

Jane slowly processed this information, as he blearily pushed himself up. "Oh, Cho? What is it?"

"_Are you going to come down and help question this guy?"_ He asked.

"Does Lisbon want me to?" Jane asked.

There was a pause. _"Yes." _

Lisbon's earlier words resonated in Jane's mind. "Well, tell her to come up here and ask me herself then." Jane replied, shutting the phone. If they didn't need him at all, why bother asking for his assistance? Besides, he had better things to do and those things were of interest to him personally.

Jane sighed, feeling a bit grumpy at having been needlessly awakened-especially when it was a rare time that he wasn't having nightmares. In comparison to his usual dreams, those were almost cheerful. It was only his ugly fate that he should be denied having a somewhat restful sleep.

Stretching his stiff joints, he scratched his mop of hair and pulled out the list once again.

Jane sat there for a few moments staring at the piece of paper in his hand sleepily until he urged himself to get up and move over to the window where the table and chairs sat.

He cleared the table, placed the list down carefully. He then turned and grabbed the profiles he had secretly copied of all the employees on that list from a pile by his bed, going over and sitting down to examine them. Jane wasn't expecting Lisbon to actually come, and was vaguely surprised when a soft knocking sounded at the door.

"Who is it?" Jane asked, sounding preoccupied.

No answer.

"Come in." Jane said louder. The door opened with a creaking sound and Jane looked up to see Brad edging into the room. Jane stiffened slightly. That definitely wasn't who he had expected. Shuffling footsteps moved inside.

"Hello Mr. Jane." Brad said awkwardly.

"Hello." Jane replied uncertainly. He began stacking the files he had laid out so that Brad, who was drawing nearer wouldn't be able to see their contents.

Brad stuck his hands in his pockets, wandering closer and coming to a stop several feet from where Jane sat. "I… I wanted to apologize for my conduct earlier." He said.

Patrick glanced up at him, "Oh?" He frowned, supposing that Lisbon put him up to it. It was probably some way for her to get him to come back around.

"Yes. I have more class than that, and what I did was regrettable and embarrassing." Brad said.

Jane thought about it for a moment, it seemed that Brad was apologizing for behaving in a way that he didn't find suitable for himself—and not exactly for attacking him. Jane was about to open his mouth and tell him so, but Brad spoke first.

"I asked around about you, and I heard about your family." Brad said bowing his head. "That's understandably put you in a position where you don't trust people around you. So, let's just say that I think I can understand why you did what you did, and I forgive you."

Jane smiled. "But I didn't apologize, you did."

Brad forced a smile in return. "Right. You're right." He awkwardly shifted his weight and Jane kept a wary eye on him. He didn't seem to be moving, which was worrisome in itself. Patrick certainly didn't fancy having him on top of him beating him again as he had earlier in the coffee shop.

"Is there something else?" Jane asked.

Brad scratched his chin. "Uh, actually, yes, there is." He replied. "Teresa."

Jane blinked, "What about her?"

Brad looked up at the ceiling with a chuckle. "Are you in love with her?" He asked.

Jane stared at him for a few moments. He had never been asked that question, and thus had never considered it. Lisbon was important to him, yes… but was she the love of his life? Jane fiddled with the gold wedding band around his finger, remembering his wife Angela.

"No." He replied finally.

Brad nodded. "Okay. Well, I think you need to back off." He said.

Jane tilted his head, smirking. Ah, at last, Brad's true motives for coming up here were revealed.

"Back off?" Jane repeated. He laughed. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean to say, you need to stay out of our relationship." Brad said firmly.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Patrick asked, feeling a tingling emotion rising in him.

Brad stared at him for a few moments, but didn't answer as he turned on his heel and left.

Jane sat there staring at the door for a long time; listening as sounds of the office died downstairs.

Everyone had left and gone home and Jane was still sitting there in the darkness, silhouetted in the window, silently waiting, but for what he did not know. There were troubled thoughts surging through his mind and complicated musings of the events that had taken place that day. Perhaps it was better that things had turned out this way, Jane thought to himself.

For after all, it was always a general rule that the more you had, the more you had to lose.

_A/N:_

_Did you like this chapter? Please leave your comments, I do enjoy reading them!_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

A/N: I hope everyone had an awesome holiday! I was sick and achy during most of mine, first with back issues, then with a cold and then with stomach flu (bummer!) but hey… Life is life. Beggars can't be choosers. Ha!

Thank you to reviewers Jisbon4ever, Kourion, Jbon and Anna for reviewing chapter 7! As well as everyone who followed and favorited my story- many, many thanks!

To Jisbon4ever- Yes! lol, Jane is very self-absorbed so it's only fitting that he'd feel personally attacked. Well, Brad of course is only apologizing because of his own appearance- in fact, someone actually did apologize like that to a close family member of mine, "I have more _class _than that!" yeah right!

Kourion- Thank you for reviewing for the first time! I'm glad you enjoyed the story so far! That really makes me happy to have you say that! I do actually have a pretty good and definite ending for this story—so stay tuned!

To Jbon and Anna- Your continued support is much appreciated! Thank you so much for reading!

OK… Here we go… And in advance: Happy 2011!

* * *

Two weeks had passed and Jane had not reappeared from his thinking room upstairs in the attic. Mysteriously, food would disappear from the kitchen though, which meant that he was still eating. Teresa Lisbon was hard at work inside her office. Her couch had been rather forlorn and lonesome sitting in the corner against the wall as it was. She contemplated getting something to place on it to replace the odd void that it left. Teresa hated the fact that Patrick Jane was still on her mind, even when he wasn't even around. What was it with that jerk? At the same time that she couldn't stand him and his stupid antics, she had some sort of sick affection for him. Teresa sighed. Maybe it was the result of her childhood that had made her cling onto these unhealthy influences in her life… At least that's what her therapist had told her.

Lisbon's phone rang and she smiled as she saw the name "Bradley" pop up on the little LCD screen. She opened it. "Hello Brad." She said sweetly.

"_Hello Honey-cakes." _

"Hey, what's up?"

"_Uh…Listen… I'm really sorry Teresa, but the court date for the Meyers' case I told you about last week was extended, and I have to go over my testimony for insanity with the lawyers-"_

"Are you breaking off our lunch date?" Lisbon interrupted, her heart sinking slightly in disappointment.

There was a silence on the other end. _"Yeah, yes I am."_ Brad said. _"Unfortunately."_ He added.

There was another pause. _"I hope you're not mad."_

Lisbon smiled devilishly. "Just a little bit." She teased.

"_I'll make it up to you."_ Brad replied. _"I promise."_

"I'm going to hold you to that promise!"

Brad laughed. _"Are you going to come over tonight?"_

This caught her off-guard, and she felt her stomach contract. Brad had been subtly pressuring her to come over to his house. Teresa couldn't help but feel a bit burdened and bothered every time it was mentioned. "Oh-um… I-I don't know…" As Brad began saying something in reply, Lisbon saw her three team members approaching her office through the window.

"Oh-oh, Brad, I have to go, I'm sorry." She quickly hung up the phone as the team filed in to her office. She quickly grabbed some of the papers in front of her to make it appear as if she were busy. It was best to obtain a professional look in front of her team, after-all, if they saw her slacking, they would be more inclined to slack off themselves and Lisbon couldn't afford the trouble that would come with that. She had already gotten enough flack as it was, with Agent Hightower coming in the past year and making a lot of changes. Though she had relaxed somewhat since her arrival, Lisbon was walking on eggshells from the many times her job had been in peril.

The team stood, shifting their weight, glancing at one another as if trying to decide who should talk first. Lisbon looked up slowly at them. Rigs was nervously jiggling his hand in his jacket pocket, Grace was biting her lower lip, and Cho's jaw was noticeably more clenched. Lisbon shrugged. She hadn't called them into her office. "Is there something you want?"

The three agents appeared to be silently communicating with one another to speak first.

"Well, don't all talk at once." Lisbon said with a bemused smile.

Grace finally cleared her throat. "Um… Well, it's… It's about… Jane." She said delicately.

Rigsby's eyes darted to his shoes and a muscle tensed on Cho's forehead.

Lisbon resisted rolling her eyes. She suspected just as much. She took a deep breath, "What about him?"

"Well… We all just happened to notice that he… that he hasn't really come down from that room upstairs and we're all just a little bit concerned about him." Grace said looking around for support.

Lisbon shook her head, putting the papers aside so that she could put her elbow on her desk. "He's fine I'm sure. You know Jane; he's probably just doing this so that someone will go begging to him to come downstairs." Grace and the two guys both exchanged looks. Lisbon sat back in her chair, "Oh, what? If you're concerned about him, why come to me? Why not just go up there yourself?"

"We've tried." Cho said.

"Yeah, we went up there and knocked on the door- but he didn't answer." Rigsby offered.

Lisbon sighed skeptically. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" She asked with a shrug.

"Well, we were thinking..." Grace looked around again for support.

"Jane's only up there because he thinks that you're mad at him and that you don't want him around." Cho said.

"Yeah, and maybe if you talked to him-" Rigsby started.

Lisbon held up her hand, "Okay... wait... You want me to...what? Go apologize?"

The team stared at her wide-eyed, as if frightened to say yes.

"No. No, I'm not doing it." Lisbon said shaking her head. That was just want Jane wanted.

"I'm not going to go up there begging him to come down and inflating his ego anymore than it is by going to him first. He's going to have to step up and start being mature about this and admit that he was wrong. Sometimes He acts like he's five years old and I'm not going to encourage this behavior anymore! It's unprofessional and frankly, when he does act like that, I _don't _want him around me."

"But Boss-"

Lisbon shook her head, her hair gently cascading around her face. "No! There's no way. If he wants to act infantile, he can go ahead and be that way- honestly, I don't even know how he was ever married. He's irresponsible and reckless- a very bad combination. You mix that with his childish behavior and you get a disaster waiting to happen."

"But-"

"That's all I have to say about it guys. I think you three better quit gossiping and go back to work. That's what you're getting paid to do- not worry about Jane."

"But we need him!" Rigsby whined. The other two nodded in agreement.

Lisbon straightened herself up in her seat, quite disgusted by their helplessness and reliance on Jane. "We don't _need him._ We're a perfectly good team. Yes, sure, Jane might be able to help us out with our cases; but that is not all there is to our work. We are officers of the law, and we should be committed to putting in those extra hours and giving that much more of ourselves to protect the citizens. You all should be ashamed of yourselves- you've all become lazy, because you're used to making Jane do your work for you! You all need to push yourselves more and start picking up the slack!" Lisbon griped. The three team members glanced at each other, looking defeated.

"Rigsby, Cho- I want you both to start filing these papers. Van Pelt, you need to start doing more research on the case we're working on right now. What are you waiting for? Go on!" The team hesitated and then left in haste. Teresa watched them leave, and clicked her tongue, resting back into her chair with a sigh; rubbing her temple with her right hand as she felt a tension headache coming on. Extremely frustrated, Lisbon began straightening her desk items to allow herself some more breathing room. At least if she couldn't have order within her team, she would have an orderly desk.

* * *

Lunch time had come, and it was the time when the sunshine streamed through the window most. The light washed over Patrick Jane's sleeping form, making him look golden, lying there with his hand resting on his stomach that was slowly rising and falling. He was disheveled in appearance. A short, scruffy beard had formed on his chin, and his curls were knotted and loosely hanging around his face. A wrinkled jacket lay crumpled up on the chair by the dirty window and a broken glass jug he had been using for water lay on the floor amidst the mess.

Opening his eyes, Patrick Jane was momentarily lost as he had been dreaming he was else-where. He sat up with a groan as he realized where he was, feeling a tad disoriented. Patrick wasn't sure what time it was, having no watch, but he guessed it was around eleven in the morning. He stretched, and yawned loudly, his eyes working their way over his "work".

Unpleasant memory flooded back to him.

Day and night for the past two weeks, he'd been immersed in Red John. Fabrications, suspicions, tangled plots all were etched into his mind like the scribbles on his notebook paper. It appeared as if someone crazy had written half of the pages that little black book now contained. There were discarded plates lying on some of the unused boxes in the corner that concealed the piece of floor where he had hidden his hand gun- a gift from Mr. Winters from the case he had done- he had gotten revenge on his wife's murderer and had given the gun to Jane as a thank you present for getting the facts to get him less than a prison sentence for committing a crime that had already taken place.

The question had been on Jane's mind since he started this quest to hunt down the serial killer… What would Jane do when he faced Red John for real? Would he actually be able to kill this man? This strange man who at the same time, taken away his will to live and given him something to live for? What would killing Red John mean? Would it give him peace or just emptiness? Would it make anything better? Would it actually change anything? Jane's whole life was so miserable and disgraceful that Patrick had to convince himself that there was another reason for him to live beside from avenging the man who had led to his family's death. Maybe he was just as bad as Red John was… Tyger, Tyger…

Patrick Jane rubbed his face with his hands. How had he gotten trapped in this exquisite trap, this web that Red John had cleverly woven? How would he ever solve the case? Red John had the upper-hand, he always had the upper-hand, and yet Jane was foolish enough to believe at one time that he hadn't. Red John had the power of anonymity, where as Jane had long ago sold his image away to the media, and this was his downfall.

_Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright, in the forests of the night…_

_What Immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?_

The words had been resonating in Jane's mind since he had heard them. Was there anything to be taken away from it, with the exception that Red John had pointed him out to be his equal? Was what he was doing a form of love? Red John had saved him once. What did it all mean? Had he unknowingly met Red John in his past? Jane racked his brains, but alas, there came no answer to his question. Red John could be anyone. Jane pushed himself up, feeling extremely anxious. He began at once pacing.

Jane's control was slowly escaping him and it looked like it was not going to be returned to him. Red John was cleverly controlling him. Who was he to deny that he was completely powerless to his traps- one wrong move could mean the downfall of every last thing that he cared about. Jane had been powerless and vulnerable once, and he vowed to himself never to be powerless again, and yet now he found himself trapped as if in a check mate in a game of chess.

_Crunch._

Jane removed his foot to look down at what he had trodden upon. A shard of glass lay on the ground at Jane's feet from the broken jug. He stopped, staring at the glass for several moments, before bending down and taking it up in his hands, turning it around and around, fascinated by its sharp edges.

Jane began thinking about how simple it would be to pierce his own hand with the glass…the blood would roll down his wrists with a gasp of pain, gently and silently with his quick inhale of breath, dripping to the floor… Jane had experienced this feeling before, the odd sense of pleasure he received by harming himself. He had first begun this practice in his teen years- when his father had forced him into the life of con business. So absorbed in money and gambling as his father was, that when he had offered Jane the hundred dollars, he hadn't even noticed the bandage on Jane's left hand. It gave him a perverse satisfaction to think of the pain… The relief it had given him… the _control_ of his own pain-but it was only a temporary release, an addiction to solve his troubled thoughts. He had worked through it with Angela's help. But after he didn't have self masochism to rely on anymore, he shifted his addiction to sadist methods of trickery and deceit. In effect, He had become his father. The father who had created his own self-loathing and guilt that had caused him to punish himself.

After his family died and he had been placed into the institution, he had begun cutting again. While the orderly wasn't looking, he would swipe the razor used to shave the patients. He would wait until that cart rattled off down the hall before placing the blade in his hand and squeezing his fist close. He then proceeded to draw the face on the wall with his own blood; he was as good as Red John wasn't he? He had caused the death of his family because of his trickery and that was why he did it- to punish himself and to remind himself that he was still human. He felt nothing, he felt dead… but pain… and pain meant that you were alive…

There was a tapping on the door, and Jane started, snapping out of his bizarre thoughts and into reality. He stared at the glass in his hands…What was he thinking?

"Jane?" Lisbon's voice rang out distantly behind the door. Jane's eyes were still on the glass shard, staring at his own green eyes reflected back at him.

"Jane?" She said louder.

_Bang, bang, bang!_

"I know you're in there!"

Distracted, Jane moved to the table, setting the glass piece down slowly and delicately as if it were some sacred object. As soon as he released the glass, the entrancing spell it had over him was instantly broken and he moved back from it as if frightened of it and its odd possession over him.

_Bang, bang, bang, bang!_

"Open the door Jane, I swear to god, if you-"

Jane then quickly moved over to the door and opened it. Lisbon's mouth was open and her words trailed away. "It was open." Jane said absently as he turned to go back into his room and sit down on his makeshift bed.

Teresa Lisbon closed her mouth and put her extended hand she'd been pounding the door with in her pant pocket. She walked inside the room, looking around at the mess. Jane glanced up at her critical expression, his mentalism tricks of observing her facial movements and body language coming back to him automatically from continued practice over the years. Jane smiled to himself, suddenly thinking of his wife who had been so irritated by his constant 'psychic readings'. She would roll her eyes and flick her head so, that her auburn locks would fall back and out of her eyes, where it would cascade often. She would look at him with a mixture of annoyance and adoration, and ask, "Can't you turn it off?" Jane would give her a devious smile, and a smile would slowly creep onto her face; the small dimples appearing as she'd tilt her head so slightly examining him in a mysterious way. She would then raise an eyebrow and shake her head, giving him an expectant look as she extended her hand out toward his…

"Are you alright?" Lisbon asked awkwardly.

Angela's face vanished, replaced by the dusty, sun-filled room. Lisbon's figure stood before him, her hip out, feet planted firmly beneath her as she looked at him from under her bangs a worried glimmer in her eyes.

Jane realized he had been day-dreaming and he must have looked quite spaced out. "Oh- uh… Yeah." He clasped his hands in front of him.

Lisbon looked furious with herself for even coming up to the attic room and Jane sat there, watching her, waiting for her to state her business. He wasn't about to make her feel comfortable after their last exchange of words. Jane thought to himself that if she was there to apologize than she ought to get to it. It was only a matter of time before she came crawling back asking for his help. The silence was deafening and the floor creaked as Lisbon shifted her weight uncomfortably. Jane said nothing but merely watched her closely as millions of small dust mites danced in the sunlight around her, that beamed in through the window covering her like a spot light.

Lisbon tossed her head rather like a subtle version of a frustrated horse. "You know, there's probably black mold up here or something- it's not healthy for you to be up here all the time."

Jane cracked a slight smile, suddenly amused by her and her ways to break the serious silence. "Black mold? Really? That's how you're going to try to get me to come downstairs and help you out with your cases? To act as if you're concerned about my health- that's a pretty weak alibi… for a cop."

Lisbon looked as if she was trying to fight smiling or laughing, one or the other, and not succeeding. "Damn it Jane, you're such a pain-in-the-ass. Have I ever told you that?" She exclaimed. "I don't even know why I'm up here."

"I do." Jane replied. "Because you need me."

Lisbon rolled her large eyes in her usual fashion. "Alright, so I'll admit that you do add a certain aspect to the team that-" Using her hand she carved the air, elaborating her meaning.

Jane raised his eyebrows. "Aspect?"

"Yes, aspect."

"I think you mean _asset_."

"No, I mean ass."

"But you still need me."

"Shut up Jane. Just…shut up. And come downstairs."

* * *

_A/N:_

_TBC?_

_Reviews will be loved 33 _


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update! I was busy with a variety of things, updating my you tube account with fan videos, general "get life in order since it's new years", and my new obsession with this manga series called Fruits Basket (awesome!) made me extremely unproductive as far as writing goes- haha! But I'm back, and it's all for my readers! (No, really. I mean that literally.) So, thank you for reviewers: Meltedchocobutton, 13 Jo, Jisbon4evr, Kourion, LittleMender, Frogster, xanderseye, and Anna! I loved reading all of your feedback and comments on the last chapter. I think it's fun to explore Jane's "darker" side, because I feel that it's not commonly put into light, but it's there- and he tries very hard to disguise it. I can confirm, just by watching those institution scenes in slow-mo on my editor (aha, time wasting!) that Jane was chopping up his hands in that mental institution, so I think it's interesting to explore that "ugly" side of Jane and the vulnerability and those dark feelings (depression!) that he hides. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"Why don't you just tell her?" Cho said unconcernedly in a very bored drawl.

"But I can't, Cho- I mean, what good would it do anyway?" Rigsby exclaimed.

Cho sighed. The whole conversation was going around in circles again and it was all revolving around one thing: Rigsby and Van Pelt. Cho wished that Rigsby would either man up or come to terms with it soon, because the whole thing was becoming tiresome to hear about. Rigsby was complaining about all the recent failed dates he had gone on with various different women, and was whining about not being able to be with Van Pelt. To top it all off, a little less than a half hour ago, Van Pelt had went off on her merry way on the arm of her new man, O'Laughlin, which stuck Cho with a jealous and moping Rigsby.

He only wished that Van Pelt would be more sensitive to the idea of bringing O'Laughlin around Rigsby- what was she trying to accomplish by canoodling around with her new FBI beau around the work place? Rigsby had acted as if he had come to terms with the whole new relationship and put up a good show around Grace, but when she wasn't around, it was obvious that he was in pieces over it.

Cho now regretted encouraging the whole 'Rigspelt' relationship in the first place knowing what he did now. Of course, Cho didn't know that the two of them were going to do something so stupid as to announce their relationship to the team like some sort of engagement so soon after they got together. They were supposed to keep it on the down low…How stupid was that?

Even so, it was already destined to fail anyway and Cho kept telling Rigsby that there were plenty of available women out there for him- some with less-strings attached. Cho couldn't see why he wouldn't just go find one. He sighed in exasperation with the whole matter, burying himself in the papers he was sorting, wishing only to block out Rigsby's drama. Besides, Cho was going to have to end up getting behind, which meant pile-ups and major deadlines that he really didn't want to deal with.

"Rigsby, you need to start on your paper work." Cho said, glancing over at him. The large arson specialist had his elbows on the table, sadly gazing out the window as if he would be able to see O'Laughlin's helicopter flying off in the distance. "Because I'm not doing half of yours like I did last time." Cho added impertinently.

Rigsby looked over at him with a frown, but began to comply- opening up the boxes that contained the files. Cho was placing "Johnson" in the proper alphabetical order, when Rigsby said, "Hey-Cho, look!"

Cho glanced up and looked over at Rigsby who was craning his neck toward the hall way. Cho hoped it wasn't something to do with Van Pelt, as he leaned back in his chair to see what Rigsby was referring to. The blond haired consultant had emerged from the attic room, and by his side was Teresa Lisbon.

Rigsby twisted around to look at Cho. "It worked! She went and asked him!" Rigsby said excitedly.

Undeniably, Patrick Jane's reappearance cheered them both up considerably. Not only did Jane make the work load less arduous, but he also brought a care-free attitude to the job, which loosened them all up, and perhaps had the most stunning results on dogmatic Teresa Lisbon herself. Cho wasn't one to make a big fuss though- he felt foolish and uncomfortable displaying his true pleasure at Jane's return, and instead opted to just saying, "Good." Cho inwardly cringed at himself. Sometimes he wished he could be as open with his feelings as Rigsby was, but there had never been anything good in his life that had come with showing his true self. No, it was better and easier to be hard and cold, to keep a distance from everything around him so that he could analyze things fully first before he leapt into a mistake—like Rigsby had the tendency of doing.

Cho's eyes left Lisbon and Jane to settle upon a less pleasant sight; a round bald man in a suit coming through the hallways. "Here comes your friend Rigsby." Cho said glancing at the hefty investigator that was approaching. Cho privately hoped that LaRouche wasn't going to start asking around and poking into his background next- if Rigsby wasn't clean, Cho certainly wasn't.

Rigsby jumped turning around to see who Cho was referring to and grimaced. "Oh no, not LaRouche!" Rigsby appeared to be looking somewhere to hide, but instead of walking straight toward them to come into the bull pen, Cho saw LaRouche make a swift turn, going to where Lisbon and Jane were instead.

"Relax Rigsby, he's talking to Lisbon." Cho said with a smirk as Rigsby appeared to be trying to hide by sinking down as low as he could at his desk- which was gaining very little result, being that Rigsby was so large. Cho looked up and watched curiously as Lisbon looked at LaRouche questioningly and then, glancing at Jane, walked off with LaRouche, leaving the consultant where he was.

Rigsby whistled in relief, laughing merrily at his luck. He had been put under suspicion of the Todd burning case that had occurred inside one of the holding cells at the CBI. Even Cho felt silently relieved. Since he had lied for Rigsby to cover for his alibi to save his job, Cho had felt as if eyes were on the back of his neck- he knew that it was just nerves at the possibility that he could be discovered lying to a fellow agent- the highest dishonor that an agent could do- he could be in deep waters. He knew that he was being foolish about the whole thing- after all, LaRouche would not be able to have substantial evidence that they weren't there, and Cho, knowing quite a bit about law, knew that LaRouche would have no case with heresay. Cho buried his head back down in his work, trying to remove the idea from his mind. It wasn't productive to be focusing on something that had no merit.

"Hey Jane!" Rigsby greeted cheerfully.

Cho looked up, as Jane greeted them walking into the bullpen- he looked rather distracted as he kept glancing back at where Lisbon and LaRouche had disappeared. Cho noticed that Jane looked quite shabby this morning, but then, after hiding upstairs for the past couple weeks, it was easy to see why. "You look like crap." Cho stated before he could help himself. "Thank you." Jane replied graciously. Rigsby had a broad smile on his face. Cho supposed this meant that Rigsby had forgotten about Van Pelt—at least for the time being.

It must be nice, Cho mused, to be able to light up the entire room just by entering it. Cho wondered if Jane really knew how fortunate he was.

* * *

It was several hours later and Jane was inside Lisbon's office waiting for her to return. She had disappeared with LaRouche for a while now and hadn't come back yet, so they were apparently discussing something quite important. Jane was ready to interrogate her as soon as she got back. He sipped the cup of tea he was holding, lounging on the couch in her office, his arm casually slung over the back of it.

Cho and Rigsby seemed quite overjoyed at his re-appearance, as they enthusiastically greeted him, filling him in on the latest details and rumors he had missed whilst he had been holed up in the attic room.

A little more than ten minutes ago, the two had gone on their lunch break and so Jane, after making himself a ham sandwich and tea, decided to go wait for Lisbon in her office, surely she would be back soon so he could question her. As he sat there waiting for her, his phone rang out to recharge it- an annoying little jingle that would unrelentingly go on ringing until it got it's wish to be recharged. Jane fished it out of his pocket, to turn it off so it wouldn't annoy him. He made a mental note to himself to plug it in later as Jane replaced it in his jacket pocket. As he was pulling his hand out, he felt a slip of paper in there. Curious, Jane pulled it out and straightened it to read it.

It was the crumpled flowery note that had Mrs. Scott's phone number on it. It had been in his suit pocket this whole time and Jane had forgotten all about it... With a sudden rush of guilt he remembered what she had said to him on that day when she had given him her number:

"_Well, if there's one person I trust to solve the case, it's you, Mr. Jane."_

Jane folded the note back up, feeling rather ill the more he thought about it. Jane was disgusted with himself.

He had let her down, he had used her and lied to her without keeping his promise to solve the case. It was hopeless now, as Jane was quite sure that the con man had long left the country and changed his name. There was no point in denying that he had failed to solve the case, because of his own selfishness. Jane had decided to stop working on it, to just concentrate on Red John. He had not for a moment considered what it meant to do that. It would mean that Mrs. Scott would never get closure for her husband's death… that the elderly woman that the murderer conned would never get her life savings back, that the family that lost the doppelganger would never get justice… Jane once again thought of that shard of glass upstairs on the table. Upstairs… as if waiting for him to return to it. Waiting…

The office door opened and Lisbon came in, looking rather perturbed. Jane snapped out of his reverie, his original motive returning to him. "What did he say?" Jane asked eagerly.

Lisbon glanced at him, looking a bit startled at him being there. "Oh…Jane…" She sighed, sitting down at her desk.

Jane sat up, putting the tea cup aside. "Well? What did LaRouche want to talk to you about?"

Lisbon looked at him for a moment, as if she were trying to consider if she should actually tell him or not. Jane watched her closely, waiting for her to speak.

She sighed in resignation. "LaRouche told me that he has reason to believe that Red John had something to do with the burning of Todd Johnson." She said slowly.

Jane's mind reeled for a moment. LaRouche knew about the connection with Red John and Todd? But… he could have had no notion of it, Jane was the only one who knew about the connection- Todd Johnson had been murdered because he was going to tell Jane something about Red John- he had been killed to be silenced. But not a soul knew that before Todd Johnson died, Jane had visited him in the hospital and had received the message that Todd had intended to give him.

But now… If LaRouche knew…Red John must have wanted him to know… Red John was planning something, something big… and he had been working all this time in secret- he had let LaRouche find out about the connection between Todd Johnson and Red John, because Red John had made a plan around it, thinking that Jane didn't know! This was great! Jane thought to himself. Excitement was building inside of him… He could yet get the upper-hand! Red John didn't know that Jane knew about the connection (and for months!)- this could be his chance to catch Red John in his own web.

Jane jumped up off the couch, barely hearing Lisbon's questions of "Where are you going?" as he quickly rushed off up to the attic room. This was it! This was Red John's mistake! He was so close… Jane could feel it!

Lisbon gaped as Jane took off, she craned her head to see him jogging up the stairs to the attic. What was he doing up there now? He'd already been up there for the last two weeks… He was on to something, Lisbon knew it and she was going to find out once and for all what it was...

* * *

Upstairs, Jane opened up his notebook, hurriedly flipping through it's pages to his desired page.

Could LaRouche be involved with Red John? Perhaps he was the one who had set Todd Johnson on fire…

How else would he know that it had something to do with Red John? He was new to the department anyway, and it would be ironic to have the man responsible being the one who was in charge of the case to find the murderer. Jane leapt up, leaving his notebook after scribbling a few notes on one of the pages, and he went over to his makeshift bed, pulling out the rest of his notes and case files, and most importantly, the list of suspects. He laid them out on the table and went back to search for the files that Dr. Montague had given him. As Jane was kneeling to pull them out from under the crate where he had hidden it, he didn't notice that Lisbon had opened the door and walked in on him. She paused staring at him for a few moments. "What are you doing?" Lisbon asked him.

Jane started violently at her sudden, unexpected and unannounced entrance. He looked over his shoulder at her, replacing the crate. "Nothing…what do you want?" Jane asked, trying to sound casual as he straightened up slowly.

Lisbon didn't answer him, but instead strode over to the table, picking up the suspect list.

Jane moved forward quickly, trying to stop her from looking at it, but it was too late. She looked it over, Her expression turned to puzzled.

"What are you doing with LaRouche's suspect list and how did you get it?" Lisbon asked him suspiciously.

"Never mind." Jane said quickly, grabbing it back and taking it to safety over by his makeshift bed, placing it inside one of the poetry books that was stacked there.

Lisbon stared at his back, suddenly understanding everything. "You already knew that Red John was involved in this, didn't you?"

"No." Jane lied with his back still to her, putting the book down softly.

Lisbon shook her head, "You're lying! You knew about this?" Lisbon exclaimed.

Jane turned toward her, tilting his head and sighing, wishing that she would go away. She was wasting his valuable time for research with her stupid questions.

"I can't believe you." Lisbon gaped at him angrily, "Oh and what's in this?" She grabbed his journal that lay on the table and flipped it open, reading the page before her…

"Tyger, Tyger, burning bright… In the forests of the night- what is this? …poetry? What is this Jane? It looks like a crazy man wrote this!"

"Just give it back." He moved toward her and swiped for it, but she pushed him back with one hand, turning away to read some more of the pages. "No, you get your hands off me Jane!" She dodged him and flipped to another page. "What is all this? 'He wants me to know' and 'LaRouche' with a question mark? You think LaRouche is involved or what?" Jane watched her in silence, wishing only to have the book back in his possession before she understood too much.

"You lied to me!" She exclaimed. "You've been keeping _all of this_ from me this entire time?"

Jane sighed irritably. What? Had she thought that he'd been doodling?

"We're supposed to be a TEAM Jane, a team! And here you are, trying to solve this case without me-" Her mouth opened slightly and her expression suddenly transformed into one of understanding. "You son of a… you are actually going to try to go through with it, aren't you?" She laughed sardonically. "Of course! You think that if you can solve the case without me, then you'll be able to go off and kill Red John. That's what you want, isn't it? Well, guess what Jane? If you kill him then you're the one that's going to have to pay the price!"

"It's all in your perspective." Jane said calmly.

"I'm not going to let you go through with it- and with-holding evidence like this…that's against the law!"

"I already told you Lisbon, I don't care about the law. I care about justice."

"Vengeance Jane, it is _vengeance_ that you care about. Vengeance and foolish pride! Who's the one who said that 'vengeance is for fools and madmen'?"

"I wasn't lying." Jane replied.

Lisbon stared at him for a moment, pity entering her expression. "Don't you _value_ anything that you have here? You're being completely selfish! There are people here that care about you, and you're just going to throw us all away-and for what Jane?"

Jane gave a dismissive wave with his hand. "Eh, you said so yourself, you don't need me."

Lisbon's face was strong, but her true emotions were in her shining eyes and her quivering lip. "Stop that. You know I didn't mean that. We _do_ need you Jane."

Jane didn't answer her and Lisbon shook her head sympathetically as she said quietly, "Killing Red John is not going to bring your family back to life."

"Give me the book, Lisbon." Jane said, holding out his hand for it.

"No- I don't want you doing this anymore!" She said, moving the book behind her and out of his reach.

Jane moved forward a few steps, "You can't keep it, it's _my_ notebook!" He exclaimed, making a grab for it.

Lisbon pulled the book away and backed away from him. "It's not your book anymore, its evidence that you withheld from me and I can turn it in as such!" Lisbon said stubbornly.

Jane took a deep breath, feeling anger rising inside of him. "I'm not going to ask you again."

"Then don't." Lisbon replied.

With that, she turned, heading to the door. With her went all of his work, all of his theories, all of his plans rested inside of those pages like a piece of his mind printed on paper. He momentarily might have the upper-hand at knowing the information he did now and by her taking the notebook, it meant that everything could be at stake. His chance of catching Red John would be gone, and who knew what the result could be.

As if there was a demon possessing him, he strode forward grabbing her from behind around the waist, wrestling her for the diary. "Give me the book!" He breathed in as she elbowed him in the ribs- her cop training coming out. But Jane still was stronger than she and was able to hold on to her even as she attempted to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Let go of me Jane!" She exclaimed furiously, scratching at his strong hold around her. They both staggered around as he tried to pry her stubborn hands off of the journal. "Give me-" Lisbon stuck her fingernails into his arm, but Jane could not even feel the pain as the goal of getting the book was so crucial to him.

"Jane- stop it- you're hurting me- you're acting – crazy-" She suddenly kicked him in the shins hard and Jane groaned, his grasp momentarily slipping. With those vital few seconds, Lisbon tried to run for the door, the book was tightly in her grasp; but he grabbed her again with a roar, over-powering her to the floor, getting on top of her and pinning her down with all of his weight.

"Jane!" She screeched, terror in her eyes as he went at her like a rabid animal, tearing at her hands for the book. Lisbon stopped struggling, and finally released it and Jane grabbed at it, finally taking possession of what was his. He held it tightly against his chest protectively. Still on top of her in an insinuative position, Jane panted from their struggle. Lisbon lay there stiffly. Terrified and visibly shaken, fearful of what his next action may be.

Realization was slowly returning to Jane at the violent act in which he had just committed. The pain was suddenly hitting him from the scratching, elbowing and kicking that he had received. Trauma from her past was there in her eyes and Jane felt ashamed of himself for frightening her so. He didn't want to hurt her. How could she understand that he was trying to protect her? Jane carefully removed his body off of hers, sitting back on the floor beside her. Lisbon didn't move right away. "Lisbon…" Jane said weakly, his mouth completely dry as he turned to look at her. Tears were shimmering in her eyes. He turned toward her, trying to touch her, to comfort her, but she held up her hand, shielding him from her.

Jane dropped his hand, a sinking feeling in his gut. What had he done?

Lisbon began picking herself up off the floor and Jane followed her. "Lisbon—I'm sorry…" He said desperately. She needed to understand what she was doing- what he was trying to prevent. "Lisbon, please, you can't tell anyone!" He exclaimed.

Lisbon turned toward him, giving him a glare of hatred. "If you think I'm not going to tell anyone about what you did-" Jane waved his hand in dismissal, "No, not about me! About this-" He held the book up. "The information, the list- you can't tell _anyone_ Lisbon." He said imploringly.

Lisbon gaped at him. "You need help, do you know that? You need _serious_ help." Lisbon said. She turned away from him, brushing her hair out of her eyes and heading for the door.

No, she had to listen! She had to! Jane moved and grabbed her, forcing her against the wall. "Jane, you let go of me!" Lisbon cried out. She did not fight him this time, but instead tearfully hung in his grasp. Jane held her shoulders, firmly but not painfully. "No, no, Lisbon, you have to listen to me, you must. It's important. It's very, very important." Lisbon looked at him tearfully, suddenly nodding. "Alright, Okay, okay, I'll listen." She said hurriedly.

Jane grimaced at the expression on her face. "Don't. Don't humor me Lisbon. I'm serious. I'm not trying to hurt you; I'm trying to protect you." Jane said quietly shaking his head.

Lisbon stared at him, her eyes darting to each of his, searching for sincerity or sanity, one or the other.

"This may look very unimportant to you Lisbon, but knowing the contents of this journal could end up _getting- you -killed_, do you understand that?" Jane said emphasizing each word. He looked at her sadly, at the trust that he saw he had lost from her. Her pupils were still contracted with alarm at his brute force that he so mildly contained on every other occasion. "I can't lose you Lisbon." Jane continued. He brought a hand up to her cheek, gently wiping away an escaped tear. "I'm sorry." Jane said sincerely. "I'm_ sorry_."

Lisbon sniffled, irritably wiping away a tear, her face growing stronger and her stance relaxing. "I'm sorry too." She replied. "I…I think I understand now." Lisbon said softly.

Jane raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"You haven't told me everything , which is obvious now, but… I suppose that…that what I don't know is somehow in those notes of yours… and if they somehow fell into the wrong hands, or the information that you gathered was leaked, what with there being a spy in our midst… Jane, I was wrong to take it from you."

Jane stepped back from her, allowing her freedom as she was finally understanding.

**_SMACK!_**

Lisbon struck him hard across his cheek. His face burned and Jane staggered backward, putting his hand up to his face.

"DON'T – YOU - EVER- DO – THAT – TO – ME – AGAIN!" She yelled at him.

So, maybe he deserved that one.

Lisbon glared at him menacingly and he put up his hands, showing her that he surrendered to her will.

"You understand that I could have kicked your ass if I had really wanted to hurt you, right?" Lisbon asked.

Jane shook his head, seriously doubting that she could have kicked his ass as she claimed, but he wasn't about to argue. "Look, Lisbon, all I wanted was the book. I said I was sorry."

"You don't get to do that, Jane! You can't just act like I'm not justified to feel_ something_ after all that!"

Jane shrugged. "God, you acted like you were nuts or something. I wasn't sure what you were going to do." Lisbon said under her breath.

Jane slowly smiled, but Lisbon wasn't. She shook her head. "Uh-uh. Don't even go there."

"What?" Jane asked.

"You know what." Lisbon replied with a scowl.

Jane sighed in exasperation, "Oh come on, you didn't really think I was going to hurt you."

"For a moment I wasn't really sure Jane. You had a weird look in your eyes." Lisbon said.

Jane chuckled, "A weird look in my eyes, huh?" He put his hands in his pockets. "Well, I'm sorry… But really, I think you did more harm to me." Jane took his hand out and rolled up his sleeve, where her fingernails had dug into him. "See?"

"Oh well, you deserved it. I could have done worse." Lisbon said.

Jane was still pointing out his injuries, but she obviously wasn't interested. "You're going to tell me, Jane." Lisbon said.

Jane looked up from the bruise that was forming on his forearm. "Tell you what?"

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "You know what-" She nodded at the book. "You're going to tell me right now. Everything."

Jane stared at her for a few moments. Everything? That would include divulging all the information he had collected over the months that he had known about Red John's involvement with the inside job. About the words that Red John had whispered to him that fateful night inside the warehouse where he had saved his life. How Red John didn't know that the message that Todd wanted to give him was received. How now Red John wanted him to know that there was an informant- that something, very soon – something big - was going to happen. And that Jane was going to catch Red John when it did.

Jane swallowed, looking at her.

"Alright." He agreed.

* * *

_TBC soon….hopefully…_

_Let me know what you think!_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

A/N: I had a hard time writing this chapter. I think I started it about 4 times… threw it out, became uninspired…then all this stuff happened, I'm going to be moving in June-July, I'm starting college this fall so I signed up for my classes, I went to a funeral out of state, found a dog-returned it to it's owner, sat around tinkering with a computer until I fixed it (GEEK!), lol, yeah, just crazy… I also saw some previews for the show I was an extra on back in December, called Teen Wolf, and I'm pretty excited for this to air now… it's weird seeing the actors on that show, because they are so not serious at all in real life (lol, well at least the 2 main guys b/c I was around them all day, and they were clowns and I was messing with their heads all day- that was fun! haha!)- that show starts on June 5th on MTV, so you should check it out and see if it's your cup of tea or not. I'm honestly not much for supernatural horror stuff, but hey, I'll be tuning in for sure. LOL!

ANYWAY… (See? I often go off on so many tangents… it's my ENFP personality type… you must take one of those jung and briggs myers personality tests online to determine your own! Do it, it's extremely accurate!) I got another review recently so I decided to try to rough it out and begin it again. Hopefully you guys are still with me even though I've left you all hanging for 2 months *weeps* I love my readers!

Thank you to all my reviewers for the last chapter: Jisbon4ever, Meltedchoccobutton, 24Mentalistlover, gilmoregirl1988, xanderseye, Anna, Fallon the coyote Pirate (who found me on my Deviant Art geminimoon3 account from a little doodle I did for this fanfic!), Meggie Girl, Mentalistlover, 13 Jo, Time Lady 802379, and my writing buddy on my geminivids youtube, The Foamfoam52.

Up until now, I've been trying to keep this story alongside the season 3 story line… of course, I knew eventually I'd have to branch off and now the time has come. I am taking a bit of a risk with some minor characters, but I wanted to have an impact, whether the show actually turns out this way or not.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please let me know what you think! I love hearing your thoughts, I read all my reviews and they are like candy for me! Haha! It actually keeps me coming back for more. The conclusion is near… I vow to finish this! Please help remind me to come back. :D

PS:

To Time Lady - Well, there's certainly another part for Mrs. Scott to play in this story… you will find out soon! You are right to think twice about her… she may be much more involved than meets the eye!

* * *

Lisbon was in disbelief. There was no doubt in her mind that she was no longer able to trust the man she had worked alongside for the past seven years. And although she still held some sort of affection for him, Lisbon was never going to look at Patrick Jane the same way again. He was always a loose canon, and she knew this when she had first agreed to worked with him. But his antics the night before had far surpassed any insanity she had seen in him before. Lisbon knew he was a capable man. He was, in some ways, a full blown sociopath and it would only be too easy for Jane to cheat, lie or even commit murder with little more than a blink of an eye. In some sense, Lisbon always hoped- or imagined- that Jane had some instinct of right and wrong, or some sort of empathy that he hid from others. That he just tried to pretend that he didn't care… She could see now that she was wrong. After seven years of working with him, she didn't really know Patrick Jane at all.

Lisbon had rolled out of bed after a sleepless night. She had tossed and turned endlessly, still thinking about Red John and all of the events that had taken place right under her nose without her even knowing. She wondered what other secrets Jane had been keeping from her and if there was more to be discovered in that little attic room of his. It was odd really… Jane leaving such personal information in such a public place. Of course, most of it had been in codes, but there was something to be said of that, being that Jane didn't even trust anything to be put inside his own desk under lock and key. Perhaps he had been hoping that with their previous knowledge of this, that they wouldn't search for anything important. Or… maybe he had just been sloppy.

Lisbon put the key in her van's ignition, sighing from exhaustion as she did so. The day was still dark, without the sun fully risen and sleep was beckoning her back to her apartment. Lisbon always left early though… She always tried to get to work early so that she could organize things before her team arrived. She could already imagine who would show up in which order: Jane would arrive first… or sometimes he'd already be waiting for her when she came in. He was a chronic insomniac and usually couldn't wait to get to the CBI so he could get some quality sleep on the couch. The second to arrive would be Van Pelt… wanting to appear eager for her work, she would always get to the office ten minutes early. Next would be Cho… exactly on time, very punctual. Last would be Rigsby, usually slouching in a few minutes late.

At first, when the team was put together, Lisbon had chewed Rigsby out every day for being late. He'd make a variety of excuses from traffic to car problems, and eventually even Teresa Lisbon herself gave up on it. She figured he spent those few minutes to fix his hair, but at least he would look nice- which was more to be said of than her consultant, who usually adorned himself in wrinkled, faded suits and the same grimy old shoes he had been wearing since he started at the CBI. Lisbon knew that she need not even bother trying to convince him to dress nicely. It would just bring up many arguments that would go in circles, until Jane somehow made her feel guilty for even suggesting it.

Lisbon pulled into the parking lot, beside Jane's weird French car. It was predictable that he'd already be there. She slammed her car door, glancing at his silver mobile, thinking to herself that the thing was a death trap, only fit to be placed in the dump yard. She couldn't understand why Jane wouldn't at least save up for a newer car that wasn't breaking down all of the time. She bet that if Jane added up the repair bills that he had spent on that old piece of junk, he probably could have bought a brand new Mercedes.

Shaking her head, she smiled to herself. Jane was definitely a one-of-a-kind… just like that car of his.

Lisbon entered the CBI, greeting the cute guy that worked in the mail room as she passed. He had the prettiest eyes… She suddenly felt a rush of guilt as she thought about Brad and the unanswered voice mail messages on her cell phone… she'd have to make a mental note to call him back later.

Lisbon entered the empty lift, selecting her level as she headed up to work. Her mind returned to the Red John case and the earful she received the night before from Jane.

_"Red John is planning something... He's about to make his move... that's why he's made it clear to us that he's involved in the inside job... he's gotten rid of the people he needed to get out of his way, and he's about to make his next strike. The best part about this, is that I've already been onto him for months without him knowing. This is going to give us the upper-hand. This is Red John's mistake."_ Jane's eyes had gleamed in excitement as he explained his discoveries.

Teresa didn't know whether to commend him for his brilliance, or to strangle him for not telling her anything. She honestly didn't know why she was so surprised. He was extremely secretive and liked to play with the fact that knowledge equaled power. He often kept her in the dark to continue his illusion of all-knowing. He didn't seem to understand that sharing information with the team was detrimental to both safety and solving the case. But what did she know? They were still the top team in the CBI somehow, even with crazy Jane and her sloppy team that often let him pick up their slack. Lisbon supposed she should just relax and let things be. She was steadily getting better at this (especially since she had started taking yoga classes), but she still had control issues that needed to be resolved.

Lisbon poured herself some coffee in hope that it would revive her and get her through the day.

She tossed her sandwich that she brought from home inside the fridge, hoping no one would go in and raid the refrigerator. This brought up a bittersweet memory of her ex-team leader and friend, Sam Bosco who had eaten her lunch that very same day that he had been shot inside the CBI offices. A pointless killing orchestrated by serial killer Red John. Every time she thought about this, a silent rage would enter her, and so she tried to push it out of her mind. She wasn't like Jane, who obsessed over such morbidity night and day. She couldn't imagine being filled with such hatred all of the time. At times she forgot, as he smiled and made jokes, but then, she'd see it in his eyes…. That same desperation she had seen the night before in the attic room when he had attacked her.

Lisbon sighed, checking her clock. She had somehow managed to kill ten minutes just standing at the counter thinking and sipping on her coffee. Placing her empty mug in the sink as she left the kitchen area, she turned down the hall, going to the bull pen where her team would soon be arriving. Moving forward she saw that it was completely empty… Was Jane perhaps upstairs? She glanced at the clock on the wall… even Van Pelt seemed to be running late… Lisbon glanced at the untouched desks…

"It's 10 o clock, do you know where your children are?" Jane said loudly behind her, mocking the low voice of the announcer that used to say this on tv back when they still did stupid stuff like that.

Lisbon jumped. "God, Jane!" She turned sharply to give him a dirty look and he grinned widely. Lisbon's grumpy expression melted and she found herself chuckling at him despite herself. "You're such a jackass."

Jane was still smiling as he said, "I know."

Lisbon cocked her head at him, raising her eyebrows. "What's this? A new technique? You're agreeing with me now?" She asked.

Jane rocked on his heels, his hands stuffed deeply into those wrinkled suit pockets. He shrugged, "Maybe." His eyes twinkled. He acted like nothing had even happened yesterday. Jane had to be the strangest man Teresa had ever met… he didn't even seem to have any ounce of regret for the events that happened yesterday- no awkwardness… nothing. He seemed to be in good spirits, like yesterday had never even existed.

Lisbon shook her head in disbelief. "You know, I can't believe you."

Jane blinked, confusion brimming in his expression. "What?"

"You. Just you." Lisbon said. "You're unbelievable."

Jane frowned, "What do you mean?"

Lisbon sighed in exasperation. He just never would get it. In some ways, maybe that was just for the best.

"Oh never mind."

Out of the corner of her eye, Lisbon saw Cho enter (heading toward the kitchen) and she glanced at the clock once more. "Huh, Van Pelt must be running late today. Let me know when she gets here… I have some things for her to look up for me." She said.

Jane murmured in agreement and Lisbon saw that he was already making himself comfortable on the couch, so Lisbon decided to head back to her office, both her and Jane blissfully unaware that anything unusual was even taking place.

**Yesterday Night:**

The car rumbled on over the roads. Craig O'Laughlin and Grace Van Pelt had been driving for about 40 minutes. They had left the office when Grace had gotten off her shift and Craig said that he had a surprise waiting for her. She had felt somewhat bad for the way Rigsby looked when he thought that she couldn't see him. He congratulated her enough times and commended Craig, and yet, somehow a bitterness still managed to resonate in Wayne's voice. She supposed there was nothing to do about that now though. Rules are rules.

"Are we there yet?" Grace teased, sounding like a whiny child. She sat in the passenger's seat with a black blindfold on- all part of the surprise, so Craig had claimed.

"Not yet." Craig replied, his eyes firmly set upon the road in front of him.

Grace sighed, settling down in her seat. She had to hand it to Craig- he certainly had creativity in all of his dates, but the fun and excitement of this one was already beginning to die off. Never before had she been taken to a secret location blind-folded, and as this started out as entertaining, this car ride was becoming very long winded. She asked several times if they were lost, but Craig's answer was always the same: No.

"Where are we going?" Grace asked, feeling a little tired of this whole mystery. Wishing only to take off the itchy blindfold to see where they were headed.

"It's a secret."

"We've been driving forever." There was a hint of annoyance in her tone, though she tried to remain cheerful for the sake of their relationship. "Really, Craig… Where are you taking me? I have work early tomorrow morning."

"Don't worry about that." Craig replied. Something about his voice made Grace feel a bit uncomfortable. He never sounded like that when he spoke to her in the past. Something about his tone was cold and hard, where it was usually soft and sweet in the past. Something about this didn't seem right and she just wanted this ride to end.

Several minutes of silence passed as Grace pondered this and the best way to ask to stop the car. She squirmed in her seat. "Can we pull off somewhere? I have to go to the bathroom."

There was no answer.

Then, with no warning, the car suddenly turned sharply (Grace grabbed onto her seat arms to steady herself) and the vehicle began bouncing as they seemed to be going down an off-road with gravel or grass. Grace thought-or hoped- for a moment that they were about to reach their destination, but the car's speed did not diminish as it went over the uneven terrain- What in the world?

"I'm taking this thing off." Grace warned, as she reached for the blindfold.

"Don't take it off!" Craig shouted at her gruffly, he swerved the car as she pulled it off.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Grace screamed at him as he jerked the car back onto the gravel road. She never seen him act so crazy.

This whole thing was like she had stepped into a nightmare... The skies were darkened and there were woods on each side of this desolate path. She didn't recognize her surroundings at all and it didn't look like any fit place to have a picnic. Grace frowned as she looked at her beau; Craig had beads of sweat gathered on his brow, as he gripped the wheel firmly with white knuckles- his eyes set on the path in front of him. Grace stared at him. "Craig, what's wrong? Where are we going?" She asked.

Again, no answer came from him.

"Stop the car." Grace said suddenly. She didn't like this situation at all, and just wanted to go home.

He didn't answer her and ignored her request.

"I said, stop the car!" Grace reiterated. "Take me back."

She stared at him, as he drove along not communicating with her. His eyes were shifting nervously over the road in front of him. Fed up, Grace grabbed her door handle, but Craig suddenly reached out and grabbed ahold of her forearm tightly, swerving around the road as he did so. She slapped him off. "STOP THE CAR, CRAIG!" Grace shrieked. "You're going to get us in an accident!" She shouted as he sped up.

Angrily and fearfully, She grabbed the wheel from him, but as she did, he pushed the gas pedal down to the floor and the car raced along the road, speed increasing steadily from 45 to 60... to 80 miles per hour. Craig tried to pry her hands off, but Grace held on tightly- determined to hold on so they wouldn't turn over. They were both shouting at each other.

"LET GO!"

"SLOW DOWN!"

Suddenly, the road vanished, but the car continued onward and off the road. The headlights highlighted the trees in front of them as the car bounded towards them. The car bounced hard and leaned to the right causing Grace's hands to come off the wheel as they dove down into the ditch at top speed, her teeth clanged together painfully. Grace dug her feet into the floor and screamed in panic as she grabbed whatever she could to brace herself for what was to come. Was this really happening? The car was out of control and heading straight for the trees. She raised her hands to guard her head just before the jolt of the collision…

There was no preparing for it.

The car impacted with the tree trunk, whipping her forward and backward… There was both numbness and heightened senses as she heard the sounds and saw everything happening as if it were in slow motion… There was a crashing, glass shattering, airbags exploding painfully into her face. Something wet was running down her forehead and dripping into Grace's eyes… then, everything went black.

* * *

_-A/N:_

_I know, I know, sort of short right? Reviews would be loved!  
_


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